PACIFIERS - And their different sizes

skittleblu

I'm wondering what the real differences are for infant pacifiers vs the 6-18 month pacifiers?  Should I automatically switch my baby to the larger size the day she turns 6 mos?  Or later if she is in the smaller head percentile?  Or earlier if the infant sizes keep falling out?

When did you switch sizes?

I don't want to screw up her mouth orthodontically.

PALGal

Good question because I can't see the difference when looking at them. Someone told me the 6-18 month pacifiers are thicker.

mattschic

We use the NUK brand and WOW, there is a major difference in the two sizes.  I put one in DD's mouth the other day and she spit it right out.  It was definitely too big for her!

Jen0204

This was brought up on my BMB yesterday so I asked my pedi at our appointment last night and he said as long as they're happy with the ones they're using don't worry about it (someone had said that their are orthodontic reasons for making sure they have age appropriate pacifiers, but he said not to worry about it).  He said if they start to seem to not like it then we can move them up.

bridein08

If you use soothies, you should upsize no matter what- the 0-3 month size is more flexible, so much so that an older baby likes to shove the entire thing into their mouth. This can create a serious suffocation hazard to an infant, so the 3+ month ones are more rigid and can not be folded into an infant's mouth. Ds just put an entire avent (hard plastic) into his mouth and got his mouth stuck open while my mom babysat last night... I am looking for a larger plastic backed paci or we are going to wean the paci. Any suggestions?

jmccall79

The brand of the pacifier really matters in what their differences are.  Most of the time they're just bigger, but the Soothies aren't really bigger they're just harder.  Just because your LO is older doesn't mean she has to have the bigger paci.  My nephew, who's almost 3 and finally gave up the paci 2 months ago, sucked a newborn Nuk...that's all he'd ever take.  My sister tried a few times to give him a bigger one but he wouldn't have it.  My LO has been sucking a 6mo MAM since he was about 3 weeks old.  We tried just about every kind out there and different sizes of the brands too and finally came across MAM and he liked it but wasn't quite right still, so I just went up a size and he's loved it.

jmccall79

bridein08:

If you use soothies, you should upsize no matter what- the 0-3 month size is more flexible, so much so that an older baby likes to shove the entire thing into their mouth. This can create a serious suffocation hazard to an infant, so the 3+ month ones are more rigid and can not be folded into an infant's mouth. Ds just put an entire avent (hard plastic) into his mouth and got his mouth stuck open while my mom babysat last night... I am looking for a larger plastic backed paci or we are going to wean the paci. Any suggestions?

MAM have a pretty big back on them, and depending on which of the Avent ones you're using, the MAM are shaped pretty much the same just the bulb of the actual paci is bigger.