Pacifiers & Speech Development

Pacifiers...Pacifiers...Pacifiers...are they good? or are they bad? Should you use them? Or should you not?

Let me start by first saying that...yes, as of today current research is showing that babies benefit from the use of pacifiers. Plus it helps out those breastfeeding mothers by giving them "a break" when they have an extra hungry little guy :)

I need to also say though..that pacifiers can also be detrimental to your baby if...
1.) If your baby is an extra sleepy baby & falls alseep mid-feeds or has trouble waking up to feed..then don't waste time giving him a pacifier...he needs the calories from an actual feed when he is up.
2.) If your baby is a premie...be careful with the pacifiers. We (speech-feeding therapists) recommend the use of pacifiers to pre-term infants to help them develop a stronger suck..so when we introduce oral feeds (aka bottle feeds) they are able to handle it...(they practiced on the pacifiers)...but...be careful with this..although we want our babies to build up strenght and establish a sucking pattern...we don't want them to "Tire out" on the pacifiers and then try to have them feed from a bottle. We are just asking for trouble. We want our infants to be ready & awake when they feed...especially if they are premies and that sucking action is taking a lot of strength to do.
3.) You just need to watch your baby...if you think the pacifier is in anyway hindering or causing your baby to be dis-interested in feedings then cut-back on the time he is sucking away :)

So....what your saying is that pacifiers are bad?

Nope! Not at all! Pacifiers can be great, but good things need to be used in moderation :)

How long is too long to be using a pacifier?

Well...let me explain something about oral motor(mouth muscles) development. God designed our mouths to develop in a very systematic way. At about 2 years of age the back of our tongue while have dropped to a height where continuing with the pacifier will begin to hinger speech sound development...Meaning that, if you look in a babies mouth (its really prevalent in the 0-4 month olds)..you will notice that their tongue almost has a "hump-like" position..and the "hump" is in the back of the tongue. This protects the babies from swallowing non-liquid items...it also helps them to have an easier time doing that "sucking action" needed when drinking from breast or bottle...the "hump" helps the tongue do a rythmical movement (almost like a wave). You can see this happen if you watch a little baby feed. As the baby ages...and begins to transition to solids..the back of the tongue..the "hump" drops to a more adult level.

Which really makes sense if you think about it. How could a child eat table foods if their tongue was "humped"..they wouldn't have enough space for the food to go..let alone enough space to move the food around and chew..hmmm...but...God had that all figured out...and he created our "humps" to go away...slowly...very slowly...

So anyway...at about 2 years of age that "hump" has dropped to a level where they now have a larger oral cavity (aka mouth)..and that tongue is now FREE to move around and explore. If....we continue to use a pacifier past this point..then our tongue misses out on those chances to explore our mouth because it is still "filled-up" with a pacifier...it no longer has the "hump" but has a " pacifier" instead....hmmm...

When a child's tongue is exploring during this stage...it is figuring out how to say more clearly..the "tongue sounds"...like the "t", "d", "s", "n", "z", etc...

Try each of those sounds...say "tuh-tuh-tuh"..do you feel your tongue hit the roof of your mouth each time you say that sound? If a child has a pacifier in their mouth when they try to say those sounds for the first time they get a more "Slushy sound" because their tongue is blocked by the pacifier.

So...in conclusion...I know its hard...but get rid of the pacifier by 2 years of age...that means start weaning it away at 18months so its completely gone at 2...so their tongue will be "Free" to explore and learn during that critical time. God designed each stage of development...he wanted our children to be ready for those "Tongue sounds" at that age...we need to give our kids the opportunities to follow the development plan that God designed :)