I often have read about paci use as benificial in reducing the risk of SIDS. I just read this article about the problems that can be associated with it as well. I thought the article was interesting so I thought I would share.
Entire article can be found here. https://www.babycenter.ca/baby/dailycare/dummies&pacifiers/
Re: Problems with paci use.
What I seem to be getting from this article, reading inbetween the lines I guess, is to use the pacifier appropriately. Not necessarily that the pacifier is bad.
Use it for sleep, keep it clean and don't let them have it ALL THE TIME. Also, with the speech and dental issues, that stems from long term use. Most things I've read state that they would like you to take away the pacifier by 6 months and most definetly by 1 year.
I agree with this. DD was hooked on her paci, and we had a really hard time taking it away from her. That being said, she ONLY got it at nap time and bed time. She used it to fall asleep, but didn't keep it in her mouth the whole time she was sleeping. We weren't able to finally break her of the paci for good until her 2 year molars were finished coming in. The night before her 2nd birthday, it "broke", she snuggled it and the next day she threw it away. That was the end of that.
We asked our pedi about her using the paci for so long. She said the way we were using it was fine. She also said that babies who are that attached to their pacifiers are babies who just need something for comfort. If it wasn't the paci, it would likely have been her thumb or blanket or something else. I thin kit was just karma biting me in the butt. I always said, "my baby will NEVER have a pacifier". By the time she reached a year and we had tried taking it away numerous times, I said eff it. She was talking already, her teeth were perfect and I figured there were worse things to deal with than a pacifier.