Switching Pacifiers

peanut&mommie

Can someone please give me some advice ? I want to take my baby off the Avent Soothies and switch her to MAM. She will be two months Saturday. Any tips ?

gipfish

Jane has soothies, mams, and a couple other types of pacifiers. She has no issue taking whatever I happen to grab and put in her mouth.

Tracyjean22P

Elliot would only take Avent... When he was like 4-6 weeks. Then he suddenly decided that he hates all pacifiers. I've tried mam, nuk, and chicco... No dice with any of them! Part of me is happy that he won't take one, part of me hates it because now he has nothing to soothe him when he is overtired.

VexedMommy

What is prompting the change?  I don't think there is any problem offering new choices of pacifiers, but keep the ones she likes on hand just in case it doesn't go well. 

Bridget only likes the King brand pacifiers now.  She used to take any pacifier we gave her.  She has a couple of the Avent Soothies, that are acceptable to her for a little bit, but the King brand ones are the only ones she won't spit out after a few minutes.  They're super inexpensive.  My 1st would not take a pacifier and sucked her thumb.  I'd like to avoid thumb sucking because breaking that habit is incredibly difficult.  You can throw away all the pacifiers in the house, but you can't get rid of a thumb.  

Tracyjean22P

Also - can I just add that if my MIL shows up at my house one more time with a new set of pacifiers I might scream. Just because he won't take the pacifier doesn't mean there is something wrong with him lol. She actually wanted me to put sugar on it to entice him into taking it... I refused to do the sugar but I did put some of his vitamin d drops on it... And you know what he did... Sucked on the paci until the flavor was gone then spit it out.

dramaphile

Cecily loves the tommee tippee pacifiers and could care less about the others. We did get her to take an avent one when we forgot a pacifier at Christmas and the store nearby only had avent ones. I guess just keep trying them? Sometimes when she is fussy and doesn't want to take a binkie I tease it in and out of her mouth till she realizes it is there and then will finally take it.

cwoods1016

Baby girl will not take any pacifiers either..I've tried all but the tommy tippee ones! Can't wait till she finds her thumb...even though I know it's a tough habit to break I feel bad when she trys sucking her hand and then all of a sudden her hand is gone and she doesn't have enough control to keep it there yet

I would say give LO whatever they like at this point, try different ones but if LO doesn't like it keep the one they like on hand!

wimamaof2

Our DS absolutely loves MAM pacis. He sucks on the soothies for a split second before spitting it out.

threatlevelmidnight

My LO loved MAM pacis until he was about 3 weeks old. Now he sucks on it for a few seconds before spitting it out. He's pretty much on my boob 24/7..

AmoLovesAud

It's Soothies or bust over here. DD is turning into a regular Maggie Simpson, it's like we've always got one in her mouth! At 8.5 weeks, it's whatever makes her happy. We even got a paci saver + paci wipes for the diaper bag, and I have the 3+ month size waiting in my amazon cart. Like @VexedMommy said, you can throw out pacis but not a thumb!

cdepperschmidt

My LO is not a huge fan of them, but will take a MAM if he's feeling it.

wulfpackgirl

We have two wubba nubs. My LO loves them!

bellie1223

We got a mam paci for free in one of our registry gift bags, baby loves it so we stuck with it. Side note: also really love their bottles, got one of those for free as well, they are so easy to clean and baby took to them right away.

Ellsmac

This is a serious question- I am a little pacifier clueless. We are contemplating whether or not to give a paci to LO - we haven't yet (she is six weeks). We have observed her sucking her thumb twice now so are starting to talk about it - until now, I was sort of against it but am now reconsidering. Can folks share the pros and cons? Thanks!!

TallyKyle

My lo only likes the mams now.

BP1979

Ellsmac said:

This is a serious question- I am a little pacifier clueless. We are contemplating whether or not to give a paci to LO - we haven't yet (she is six weeks). We have observed her sucking her thumb twice now so are starting to talk about it - until now, I was sort of against it but am now reconsidering. Can folks share the pros and cons? Thanks!!

My little guy is 6 weeks, and we gave him a paci early on to soothe. Now, he's dependent on it to go to sleep and won't sleep without it. I'm trying to break him from it because I can't sit all day and hold it in his mouth and I'm exhausted from putting it back in all night long. I'm okay with him using one, but it would be better if it was occasionally to soothe rather than something he NEEDED in order to sleep.

kmd91

Ellsmac said:

This is a serious question- I am a little pacifier clueless. We are contemplating whether or not to give a paci to LO - we haven't yet (she is six weeks). We have observed her sucking her thumb twice now so are starting to talk about it - until now, I was sort of against it but am now reconsidering. Can folks share the pros and cons? Thanks!!

For us it has been great. My son uses it to fall asleep, and after he's soundly asleep it usually falls out of his mouth. On occasion when he wakes up in the middle of his sleep he will fuss for it back, but a lot of times he will just fall back asleep.

With that said though, he also tends to put his hands in his mouth quite a bit recently and I'm a little concerned about it becoming a thumb sucking situation, though it hasn't happened yet.

Honestly, I would give the pacifier a try if you think you'd rather that over her sucking her thumb. But I do know that I've heard from a handful of people that they waited to introduce a pacifier and their baby refused to take it. I don't know if that's a common issue or not, I just know that that seems to happen sometimes.

The only issue I have with the pacifier is that I don't particularly like when he has it in pictures. He's not one to always have it in his mouth or anything, but I just think he's so much cuter without it, haha.

Ceridwen77

My DD loves her Mam pacifier. We gave it to her during her first week and haven't tried anything else. She also now sucks her fist and is starting to find her thumb. Nothing I can do about it and I'm glad she's able to self soothe.

For OP I'd just try offering the Mam pacifiers. Make sure you get the correct size for your LO. We had DD in newborn until she was 8w then switched to 0-6mo. Can I ask why you want to make the switch?

AmoLovesAud

Ellsmac said:

This is a serious question- I am a little pacifier clueless. We are contemplating whether or not to give a paci to LO - we haven't yet (she is six weeks). We have observed her sucking her thumb twice now so are starting to talk about it - until now, I was sort of against it but am now reconsidering. Can folks share the pros and cons? Thanks!!

Pros: if your baby frequently wants to suck to soothe, it saves you and your boobs from loads of comfort nursing, and keeps them from developing a thumb sucking habit. I gave my LO a paci after a fussy night when she wanted to comfort nurse for 8 hours strait, punctuated by epic spit up bc she was activating my let down when she wasn't hungry (the over full belly made her more upset, it was a vicious cycle); she was too young for thumb sucking at the time. We offer it when she's cranky and needs a soothe, she doesn't need it to sleep but its a big help when she gets overtired, and when she half-wakes at night but isn't hungry yet, its an easy way to get her back to dreamland (if she's truly hungry she spits it out and cries). Also, unlike thumbs, you can regularly wash and sterilize them, and throw them out when it's time to give them up.

Cons: it can become a sleep crutch, similar to nursing to sleep. You may find yourself popping it back in to LO's mouth over and over in the night (her pnp is within arms reach of my bed, so this isn't a big deal for me, but I imagine it'd be a nightmare if LO sleeps in another room), and while it's easier than thumb sucking bc you can take them away, it is a habit that will have to be broken in the future.

kwaldy

peanut&mommie said:

Can someone please give me some advice ? I want to take my baby off the Avent Soothies and switch her to MAM. She will be two months Saturday. Any tips ?

As someone else said, what is prompting the desire to change? Soothies are ungodly ugly... but LO likes them, so I figure why fix something that's not broken. We have a few MAMs and NUKs but haven't tried them. Maybe one day if she starts refusing the Soothie.

wulfpackgirl

Ellsmac said:

This is a serious question- I am a little pacifier clueless. We are contemplating whether or not to give a paci to LO - we haven't yet (she is six weeks). We have observed her sucking her thumb twice now so are starting to talk about it - until now, I was sort of against it but am now reconsidering. Can folks share the pros and cons? Thanks!!

One pro is I have read they reduce SIDS. And what others said...it's easier to take away eventually than the thumb. You can't take their thumb away.

VexedMommy

Ellsmac said:

This is a serious question- I am a little pacifier clueless. We are contemplating whether or not to give a paci to LO - we haven't yet (she is six weeks). We have observed her sucking her thumb twice now so are starting to talk about it - until now, I was sort of against it but am now reconsidering. Can folks share the pros and cons? Thanks!!

I've now had one who likes a pacifier and one who absolutely refused to take one.  A lot of it is dependent on your child's personality.  My oldest (who did not take a paci) was very easily soothed as a newborn.  She found her thumb very quickly and did not need me to provide her with the comfort of boob/paci.  A parents touch and her thumb was enough for her.  My LO who is 9 weeks now is less easily soothed and requires a paci, bouncing, rocking, singing, holding to soothe her.  She has also not been able to get thumb/hand to mouth very often.  With her the pacifier has been a godsend. 

Ellsmac

Thanks everyone! I appreciate your thoughts and experiences