Once upon a time, in the not so distant past, pacifiers, the good friends of parents with fussy babies everywhere, were getting kind of a bad rap. Not only were they blamed for later dental problems, but it was said that letting baby suck on a pacifier discouraged breastfeeding tendencies. But today there is compelling evidence that babies should be given pacifiers, at least when they are going to sleep.

Recent studies have shown that a baby’s chance of dying of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is reduced by an astronomical 94% while sleeping with a pacifier. Thumb sucking also significantly reduced the risks (56%), but not to anywhere near the level that pacifiers do. These studies were conducted using a wide variety of babies from different racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds, and with all levels of other risk factors. The studies seem to indicate that the chances of preventing SIDS by using a pacifier are most dramatic with babies raised in homes that present other risk factors, such as smoking parents or soft mattresses.

The results of the study were so overwhelming that there is no question that using a pacifier while baby sleeps is associated with much lower instances of SIDS. It is recommended that you lay your baby down to sleep with a pacifier from ages 1 month through 1 year, the time frame when babies are most likely to die from SIDS.

Breast fed babies should not be given a pacifier during their first month, as this may interfere with them learning to latch on and can be discouraging for new moms trying to breastfeed. However, after the first month, baby will already have established breastfeeding habits, and giving her a pacifier should not negatively impact breastfeeding.

Here are some further recommendations the American Pediatric Association has made concerning pacifiers:

• Clean pacifiers regularly and replace them often.
• Don’t force your baby to take a pacifier. Most babies will take them willingly, but if she won’t, don’t force the issue.
• Don’t reinsert pacifiers once infants are asleep if they spit them out.
• Don’t coat pacifiers with any sweet solution. Most babies will take a pacifier just the way it is, and if they won’t, don’t coat it with anything to coax them.

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