To Pacify or Not Pacify

As a new Mom you only want the best for your baby. Simple, right? Well yes, and no. There are so many family members, friends, books, doctors, midwives, etc., ready and willing to give their solicited and YES unsolicited advice on a plethora of topics when it comes to raising a happy and healthy child.

During my pregnancy I read different books, viewed websites and yes I did ask "certain" family members and friends their advice on a few things. One of them being using a pacifier. We hadn't really given it much thought, but I was concerned because I knew I was going to exclusively breastfeed Sloane. I wanted to make sure if I was going to use a pacifier I used the correct one for a breastfed baby. I narrowed it down to two brands: the Gumdrop and the Soothie.

Both are recommended for breastfed babies, used in most hospitals in the states as well as here in Australia. I registered for the Gumdrop pacifier and didn't think anything of it after that, until I had Sloane. I didn't want her to have a pacifier in her mouth. Neither did my husband. One of the things I do not like to see on babies are bibs (though I know they are necessary during eating and teething) and pacifiers. I just don't!

So after discussing it with my midwife we decided that Sloane would not use a pacifier to soothe herself. She can suck on her fingers. After all, we will never loose her fingers! We did not want to be parents who had pacifiers all around the house, or the parents whose child only wants a "certain" pacifier to soothe themselves for whatever reason.

I'm not judging parents who utilize pacifiers for their children, we have just decided not to do so with our daughter. My friend Mariel J. who is a Speech and Language Pathologist  gave me a book entitled Beyond Baby Talk, and she also informed me that pacifiers can deter language/speech development, but so can sucking on the fingers. Our hope and thought is that Sloane will not be a finger/thumb sucking child because we will be able to soothe her during her time of discomfort, and that begins now.

I'm sure there are "seasoned" parents out there who will disagree, laugh, say "Good luck with that Team Sharp!" or "Ahh...New parents". Yep, we are "Newbies" and we will learn and stumble like all parents.

So Team Sharp has decided to not pacify with a plastic object but allow Sloane to be comforted by Sloane, and her Parents...

Forever I am...Sloane’s Mommy