Pacifiers vs. Thumb-sucking
I want to chat with you about the difference between using a pacifier and letting your baby suck their thumb. This is a HUGE concern that comes up with parents that I work with. They are concerned that by taking away the pacifier, their baby is going to immediately start thumb-sucking and that it’s going to ruin their teeth when they’re older. They are also concerned with the thought of “not being able to take away a thumb” - that thumb-sucking is this big, bad thing.
I want to debunk a few of those things and talk to you about why I don’t like using a pacifier.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty about why I don’t like pacifiers, I want you to know that newborns DON’T have sleep skills - they are the exception. They don’t have the ability to self-soothe and they require assistance from you in order to fall asleep. That being said, some newborns can just close their eyes and drift off to sleep, but the majority of newborns need some help. So whether that’s by rocking them, or feeding them to sleep, or if popping a pacifier in there helps them - keep doing it.
By the time your baby is 12 weeks old, you can start transitioning them to some independent sleep skills because by this point, they can develop some small self-soothing skills. So, 12 weeks is the cut-off for when I like to get rid of soothers (and other sleep props) from sleep completely.
Difference Between a Pacifier and a Thumb
If your child relies on a pacifier to fall asleep, I can guarantee that you will be going into their room upwards of 10 times a night to keep putting their paci back in. You might think that this isn’t a big problem because they quickly go back to sleep once they get their pacifier back, but for lots of parents, this is really irritating.
It’s rare to be able to wake up, go do something for your child, climb back into bed, and immediately fall back to sleep. On average, parents take up to 20 minutes to slightly toss and turn in order to get comfortable enough to sleep again. This is really disruptive to your sleep pattern!
The same thing is true for your child. Even if they are old enough to be able to find their paci and put it back in themselves, they are still having to come to FULL consciousness in order to find their pacifier. It’s also not safe to have one of those pacifier attachment clips in their crib with them - making it easier to find it. It’s hard for a child to find their pacifier around their crib themselves, and many children are too young to do that anyway - so it’s a good habit to kick.
If your baby is a baby that just likes to suck…on a pacifier, on their fingers, or even their thumb - then the chances of them thumb-sucking are higher. What this means, is that if we take away their pacifier, they might start thumb-sucking or finger-sucking.
The reason that this is different… is because it’s attached to them.
Your baby is also not having to come to full consciousness in order to FIND their thumb. If they slightly rouse as they are transitioning from one sleep cycle to the next, they can simply pop their thumb back into their mouth and drift off to sleep again.
If you think that the pacifier is not affecting your child’s sleep, then don’t change it. But if you can’t think of any other possible thing that could be affecting your child’s sleep, but your child is using a pacifier, then I want to challenge you to take it!
What does taking the pacifier even mean?
You take it away cold turkey. I do allow my clients to keep the pacifier for daytime use, as long as it’s never being used for sleep anymore. This sounds scary, but I promise it’s not!
If you need help with getting rid of sleep props and figuring out how to get your child sleeping through the night, send me an email! I’d love to connect with you.
