Each week Naomi (Infant Feeding Specialist, CLC) shares a tip to help you navigate your infants' feeding journey.
A frequent question from new parents is about how soon they can use a pacifier with their newborn. You will commonly hear this extremely vague recommendation to wait to use a pacifier ‘until breastfeeding is established’. Even as a lactation specialist, I have struggled to understand what that means in concrete terms - exactly when and under what circumstances can I recommend to families that they can start using a pacifier without worry? And where is the data?
It turns out, there isn’t a lot of data to support that statement. At some point, it probably made some logical sense to suggest that if a baby was struggling to figure out a latch, we shouldn’t confuse them with a different kind of suck by introducing a pacifier, but it turns out that it simply isn’t true.
On the other hand, we have a lot of evidence that suggests babies are highly soothed by suck. You may even have seen your baby sucking their hand or fingers in utero on an ultrasound! Babies are using suck to self-soothe before birth and continue to do so after birth, whether we offer a pacifier or not.
When newborns struggle to regulate in their new, sometimes-stressful earthside environment, we have tools to help them - we can comfort them with our familiar voices, we can swaddle them so that they are in that familiar tight hold similar to the womb, we can walk and sway with them to offer movement, and we can give them something to suck. Pacifiers are an excellent tool in our comfort tool box for newborns.
Therefore, I recommend using a pacifier immediately and as needed, without guilt or worry, for soothing your newborn! Pacifiers can help them a lot, and anything that helps an upset baby cry less also helps parents. This brand has been popular for a very long time for good reason - it’s a classic. Don’t forget to keep it clean - this is something else that can run through the dishwasher safely! It’s also something that, like nipple shields, tends to drop, disappear and generally be hiding just when you need it, so you’ll probably want multiples. (I think I found a dozen of them squirreled around my house by the time my last baby was done with them!) Try to use it only as needed for soothing the baby when they are crying - this means, don’t just keep pushing it back in once they’ve quieted down, and don’t try to put it back in if it’s fallen out and they’re asleep. We want to use it with some discretion - if they need it, we use it freely! If they don’t need it, we don’t push it.
At some point, the utility of suck as a soothing tool will gradually reduce, and pacifiers can become more of a behavioral habit. They are still comforting, no doubt - older babies and toddlers often like to use them when they are sleepy or upset. But in these cases, there are also other tools that can be used to comfort them - it doesn’t need to be something to suck. For this reason, if you are concerned about using a pacifier because you don’t want it to be a long term habit, I suggest trying to replace the pacifier with a lovey (a small, soft piece of fabric/stuffed animal like these) by around six months. It is developmentally beneficial for your child to have a toy to bond with for comfort, and it can be very helpful to have something small to bring with you during appointments, travel, etc. to provide emotional support.
Here are a few steps to transition from the pacifier to the lovey or something similar like a small blanket or small stuffed animal:
Be sure to use the pacifier only as needed for soothing an upset baby.
If your baby starts to refuse it as they get older (spitting it back out of their mouth!), don’t force them to continue. They are indicating they don’t need it anymore!
You can begin to introduce your lovey or chosen item at any time but definitely once Baby is a couple months old. Anytime you and Baby are snuggling/feeding or Baby is sitting in a car seat or other seat and supervised, you can tuck the lovey into their hands or under their arm, stroke their cheek with it and help them get used to the touch and presence. As you continue to do this, they will get used to it being around and like to grasp it, and turn to it willingly.
Once Baby can roll over, is unswaddled for sleep, and can lift their head to move positions in the crib (this may be around 4 months) they can sleep with a lovey like the one I linked. Put them to sleep with it tucked into their little hand. Whenever they wake up, their lovey is there for them!
If Baby is still using the pacifier a lot by around 6 months, you can start to pull it out after they have calmed and offer the lovey instead, along with other comfort measures (rocking, singing, etc.).
~ Naomi, Infant Feeding Expert*
*If you need help to schedule your bundled lactation appointment with Naomi…email Elizabeth Parish.
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