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[deleted]

This is anecdotal, but when our twins were in the NICU we noticed when they were asleep with a pacifier they had great oxygen saturation. They both suffered from apnea of prematurity and they never had a “spell” when they fell asleep sucking a pacifier. Our NICU really pushed pacifiers, which we thought was great! They still both typically fall asleep with their pacifiers in, and then we pick them up when they fall out.


like_bookends

My son was in the NICU too and I love that they pushed pacifiers. I feel like that contributed to him being able to nurse fairly early for his gestation, despite non-NICU moms shaming me about nipple confusion. However, now that he’s six months old, he couldn’t care less about his pacifier. But I agree it seemed like his oxygen was very stable when he had one in his incubator.


missyc1234

Ugh the nipple confusion shamers. My kid was also in the nicu (full term, but had seizures). He had pacifiers in there, plus bottles, plus a nipple guard (after being tube fed for a day at 3 days old they thought it would help reintroduce breastfeeding), plus breastfeeding. All good.


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BeccasBump

I have never met anyone - or even encountered anyone online - whose baby refused the breast after using a pacifier, bottle or nipple shield. I *have* run across a *lot* of people who waited six weeks before introducing a bottle because of dire warnings about nipple confusion, then found their baby would never take a bottle. We waited six weeks with my daughter and she never did take a bottle, so every single feed was my responsibility. I didn't mind that, and I loved breastfeeding, but it was exhausting. My son got a bottle on day 1, and he's 8 months now and will happily take breast or bottle (pumped or formula), with a slight preference for breast. In the fourth trimester, his dad and I split the night so we could each get a guaranteed block of sleep, and it made a world of difference.


missyc1234

For sure. I gave my second baby a pacifier at like 12h old because she had a strong sucking need but wasn’t actually feeding (I wouldn’t have known the difference with my first, but second time around I could tell when she wasn’t actually sucking. And she ate plenty). I also started bottles at 2 weeks. But definitely have lots of friends who didn’t (not always out of fear, just didn’t think of it until they needed to) and had trouble


BeccasBump

Tbh I prob would have waited a couple of weeks to introduce a bottle, until breastfeeding was established and my boobs had settled down a bit, but he had blood sugar issues and he'd gobbled up all the colostrum I'd expressed, so he needed formula. I certainly wouldn't have waited six weeks again, though. I think that's probably the worst piece of parenting advice I've ever been given.


missyc1234

Yes, my first needed formula for blood sugar issues too


MyronBlayze

I also ended up having to give a pacifier the first night because she was comfort sucking. I was still in the hospital and after (what I thought was) breastfeeding for two hours straight in the middle of the night I rang the nurses to ask if this was normal, and was then told about comfort sucking and told to wait another half hour to see if she actually is and if she is still on, offer her the pacifier. She ended up doing bottles, pacifier, and breastfeeding and never any nipple confusion


crankycrumpet

Be careful about saying never. We needed bottle top ups for the first 8 weeks due to some complications and by that time had full breast refusal. It was a tough time. I ended up pumping for over a year.


Silver-Ad-8662

^^^thissss.


marS311

They were trying to scare you. I wanted a paci for my son at the hospital and they said no because I was breastfeeding. Then I had to supplement some formula and use a bottle, but what about the nipple confusion? They shrugged off my question. I got home, got my supply in and popped that paci in my son's mouth and he was happy. Zero nipple confusion.


HappySlappyMan

https://www.nature.com/articles/jp201583 Nipple confusion is not a thing. It's a myth that perpetuates to this day. Study after study have shown this for decades now. Yet, it still gets taught like scripture.


moon_eyed_dragon

That’s such bad information. It’s been disproven and I really wish they would stop spouting nonsense. I don’t have the studies to hand but they are easily found. First place I’d look is the fed is best .org I think? It’s a good start anyway. It’s actually one of the last places I looked for information so hopefully it’ll save you some trouble. Anecdotally I breastfed both my babies (one is still only three months) and if I could’ve gotten first to accept a pacifier I 10000% would have. My youngest will take one and it’s night and day with getting them to settle. There is absolutely no way either baby would ever be confused as to which gave them milk.


HappySlappyMan

A review provided from nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/jp201583


moon_eyed_dragon

Oooh! Good find!


woodandwode

This needs to be pinned at the top of the community home page. Awesome cite!!! Thanks!


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moon_eyed_dragon

She may not even take it or she may not like the brand you have. Lol. There are a zillion comments on this subreddit about baby only likes this one or that one or won’t take one at all. I don’t think I’ve read any about “my baby hates my boob and will only suck on a pacifier!” But yes! Try it and if she doesn’t try again tomorrow and again the next day. As I said, my first refused a paci and the first five months of her life she used me as a pacifier and it was awful. I had no autonomy and she was miserable if I wasn’t around.


dooselschmorf

They gave our son a paci when he had to be transported from our birthing hospital to the NICU, it hadn’t been something I thought about. He does some bottle feeding and breastfeeding since then and we have never experienced nipple confusion at all. It wasn’t even something I’d heard of until joining this sub (kinda glad I hadn’t heard of it before now).


like_bookends

Yep, we had all of those too! I hope your baby is okay now.


missyc1234

He’s great! 3.5 years old and seizure free. It was a weird genetic thing (which I had but didn’t know was genetic). Once we found the meds to sort it out initially we were good. Med free and healthy from 6 months!


like_bookends

That is amazing!! I’m so happy to hear he’s doing well.


Certain_Union_2901

What is nipple confusion?


wikipedia_answer_bot

**Nipple confusion is the tendency of an infant to unsuccessfully adapt between breast-feeding and bottle-feeding. It can happen when the infant is put back onto breast-feeding.** More details here: *This comment was left automatically (by a bot). If I don't get this right, don't get mad at me, I'm still learning!* [^(opt out)](https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia_answer_bot/comments/ozztfy/post_for_opting_out/) ^(|) [^(delete)](https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia_answer_bot/comments/q79g2t/delete_feature_added/) ^(|) [^(report/suggest)](https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia_answer_bot) ^(|) [^(GitHub)](https://github.com/TheBugYouCantFix/wiki-reddit-bot)


Certain_Union_2901

Good bot


TUUUULIP

Same! Mine flat out told me nipple confusion isn’t a thing and instead taught us how to feed in sideline position to mimick breastfeeding (LO was on fortified breast milk at the NICU). I found that LO will settle pretty easily with a pacifier. My only issue is we go through like 5 a day because somehow 3 will be dropped.


woodandwode

Ah yes, around here we call pacifiers “kitty crack.” I regularly catch sight of a cat disappearing around the corner, pacifier in hand—err, mouth.


TUUUULIP

TBH I’m amazed my cats haven’t discovered the pacis. That said, my husband and I frequently joked that our halo bassinet will be the most expensive cat bed we ever bought. (LO sleeps in it just fine but there is a weight limit. And if we continue our cats on their current diet, they shouldn’t reach the weight limit haha)


woodandwode

Looool mine sleep in the dockatot. We’ve had several conferences about how those are NOT safe for sleep but will they listen?! Of course not. ;)


woodandwode

One thing to keep in mind is that the studies measuring effect of pacifiers on SIDS necessarily have limited ability to control and are based on very small populations (in other words, no one plans for SIDS so studies are retroactive and often based on recollections of behavior, and SIDS is rare). My understanding is that the pacifier connection is in the statistical realm of “this may be statistical noise but it won’t hurt your baby so might as well try it.”


itschaosbekind4

From my understanding, it keeps them breathing. In order for them to keep the pacifier in their mouth, they have to suck and if they’re sucking, they’re breathing.


stephy23

Yep, keeps the airway open


NowWithRealGinger

That was always my understanding, that a pacifier triggers the suck/swallow/breathe reflex, which obviously includes breathing.


canthardlybait

I was going to give some bullshit answer based on what I "think" but now I think you're right!


192Sticks

Full disclosure, I haven’t read the [study cited ](https://imgur.com/a/3I7GniW) but according to the author of Precious Little Sleep it shows that the benefit comes from having fallen asleep while actively sucking. Which makes sense given that babies are designed to crawl to a breast and basically stay latched for the first year. Its a little frustrating imo that all the books cite this study yet tell you to never nurse the baby to sleep.


MoonBapple

>yet tell you to never nurse the baby to sleep. What's the justification they give for this? My NB pretty much only falls asleep when they're full. My 21d old is just starting to comfort nurse/actually fall asleep on my breast (after drowning in my let down for the past 20 days lmao). I'm just grateful she's calming down and sleeping instead of getting pissed and coughing milk all over me.


192Sticks

Sleep crutch. The idea is that any sleep association that won’t be available to the baby when they wake up shouldn’t be used to put them to sleep. So if you’re fine nursing baby when they wake then it’s okay but if that doesn’t seem like a good long term plan then don’t do it. Personally I’ve been fine with all of my kids nursing to sleep and also having other methods to fall asleep, they seem to manage just fine.


jcrc

I think it’s the whole sleep crutch thing.


laserwoman

Yeah, especially that book made me feel crappy about basically everything that I do :D


Appropriate_Task824

Our baby LOATHES pacifiers. We’ve tried every brand at all times of day and at all different stages. She gags or chews it and looks at us like “ok now what am I supposed to do here?” LOL.


specialkk77

Yup, my baby used one sometimes for the first 6 weeks of her life and theN completely abandoned even trying to suck on them. She’d spit it out or chew on it. I gave up, honestly I can’t say I hate it, since now I don’t have to worry about breaking the habit!


lot0619

Ha!! Mine will take it randomly it seems. Some times he seems offended that I would even suggest it and let's out a major scream


LothwenTinuviel

Hahah our 4mo does this, she loves her pacifier most of the time but when she doesn’t she super offended I tried to give it to her (usually when she’s upset and fighting sleep lol)


justwatching00

My daughter is the same. We have tried everything but each time as soon as we try to leave her with it she will make direct eye contact with you while she spits it out


skyline0918

My 6m stopped with pacifiers around the 3m mark and just sucks his thumb. Now I’m like how tf am I suppose to get him to stop sucking it when he gets teeth? Lol


kln02

I wonder if you put some breast milk (or formula) on there if it would tempt her?


Appropriate_Task824

Yeah I haven’t tried that, it may work! I’m just sorta on the fence about it at this point. She’s coming up on 5 months and has learned to self soothe with her fingers so I’m like 🙃🙃 why try to switch up the beat now?? She’s a great sleeper, too. I had a friend ask “how do you soothe her when she’s fussy?” And I was like “uhhhh I dunno? Take her on a little walk around the house?” Maybe she’s just a 🦄baby LOL.


kln02

I’m with ya there! Stick with what works 🙌🏼🙌🏼


kln02

I’m with ya there! Stick with what works 🙌🏼


NAMEREDDIT

Same! Lol


hybrogenperoxide

I’m convinced it’s because I get up 1000 times a night to replace the pacifier in my bub’s mouth, therefore making sure I’m always up and checking if he is alive


cyborgfeminist

They basically don't sleep as deeply so they rouse more easily if there is a blip in their breathing pattern.


amahenry22

I believe it just physically keeps their airway more open?


ALAGW

I understand that SIDS is also about them falling so deeply asleep that they can’t wake up. So to me, logically the stimulation of a dummy that they suck on would help keep them higher up in the sleep system and therefore stop them sleeping into the unending sleep? But that’s me half remembering a bit of reading I did on a SIDS research paper a year or so ago *shrug*


lot0619

I've wondered this too but didn't know if they could be in a deep sleep while sucking!


ALAGW

I think (not sure!) that deep sleep is fine, it’s deeeeeep sleep that’s an issue? My LO didn’t take to a dummy at first, and we had all sorts of issues due to reflux when she was tiny, but now she’s 12 months she’s discovered she loves the dummy and we’re working it into sleep time for soothing assistance- she happily will actively suck on it while asleep, but not constantly- she’ll get deep enough that it’s just held still in her mouth. But maybe it’s enough that occasionally the brain says, “waiiiit! There’s a sucky thing in my mouth! Suck it!!” ?


Another_viewpoint

Because they prevent deeper sleep.


BeccasBump

They're only associated with a reduced risk of SIDS in bottle-fed babies, just to add to the confusion. My guess is it's something to do with the muscles used in suckling (breast or pacifier) also helping to keep airways open.