The pacifier: should I keep it or toss it?
Oh the tricky pacifier. It feels impossible to live without it, but it could actually be doing more harm than good. Let’s dive into it.
You have worked so hard to get the baby to sleep in their crib, and the pacifier might be a huge part of that. First, let’s celebrate the huge win that the baby is sleeping in the crib! Do not sell yourself short on recognizing that win. However, around 4 months or so, often the pacifier ends up being more harmful than helpful. If your child relies on the pacifier to either fall asleep, or become drowsy, they’ll be calling for you all through the night to come replace it for them.
Your little one has learned to use the pacifier as a tool to get drowsy enough to drift off to sleep. When they wake over night, they are looking for that same assistance to fall back asleep again. Thus, an olympic level game of paci pong starts. Baby wakes, you go in and replace paci, baby falls asleep. Over and over again until you think you might be going *slightly* insane.
Now what?
In an ideal world, if they do not have a need (like hunger or discomfort) you want them to be able to drift back to sleep without your assistance. That means getting them more comfortable falling asleep without the pacifier. This can be done gradually or right away.
The gradual approach is like a relay race. You are passing the baton to them on longer and longer legs. Let them have the pacifier as usual, but then remove it when they’re not quite as drowsy as they typically are when they spit it out. Keep doing that but shorten the length of time they have the paci until they do not need it to help get sleepy or fall asleep. One thing to keep in mind with this approach is that gradual approaches yield gradual results. It can be frustrating for both you and your baby, but your patience and bandwidth is a key factor to consider.
If you are not interested in going gradually, move to cold turkey and eliminate the paci right away. During this adjustment period you can give baby space, provide cribside support,or even hold them to provide comfort while you make this adjustment together.
What this comes down to is it all depends on what works best for your family. If you need someone to be your GPS during this paci-road-trip, I’d love to help. Click here to e-mail me so we can chat more.
