Breastfeeding
Getting baby to take pacifier while breastfeeding?
With my first daughter I could not get her to take a pacifier for the life of me! I ended up being the human binky because she would just want to latch on like every 15 to 45 minutes for like 6 months all day and night and fall asleep 2 seconds into it often. It was draining and this time I am doing it alone with no help from family. I really need some tips on getting baby to take one after I have her and possible tips on introducing a bottle just for breastmilk and/or formula if I need someone to watch her. My health isn't so good but I want to breastfeed more than anything I just know it's might be really hard this time.
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Re: Getting baby to take pacifier while breastfeeding?
I understand, my dd would refuse a pacifier. You can give a paci to your baby just be sure to wait a couple of weeks so breastfeeding is established and baby has a good latch, then anytime baby is not actively sucking at the breast you can exchange it for a pacifier, the baby may fuss, pacifier use is correlated with early weaning for a variety of reasons. Because newborns love to suck on anything put in their mouth, whether it is a finger or an artificial nipple, they may use the pacifier as a substitute for feedings, especially if they are small, ill, jaundiced, or just have a very laid back temperament. There is a spot in the back of a baby's mouth where the hard palate meets the soft palate. When anything touches it, an automatic sucking reflex is triggered. That's why babies will suck automatically when a finger or a rubber nipple is put in their mouth. The soft, mushy human nipple must be drawn back in the baby's mouth until it hits that spot, so use of an artificial nipple may make him somewhat lazy when it comes to nursing.
They can be great for when you need them but also a pain because imagine being on a road trip and baby lost his pacifier, this results in a screaming toddler and an unhappy parent. Then later most mother have to 'wean' the toddler off the pacifier. Good luck with your choice!
Little Rose is 2 1/2.
I don't really have any brilliant advice, but my DS didn't know what to do with a pacifier until he was about 6 weeks old. We kept offering it, but he just spit it out. He would suck on our fingers for comfort. I watched the Happiest Baby on the Block DVD, and he said instead of holding the paci in, you should gently pull on it to teach baby to suck it back into their mouth. That seemed to help my LO figure out what to do.
DS wouldn't take it at first either, and there are still times when the binky just won't cut it, he wants the boob lol. We are using the kind we got at the hospital (it's called a GumDrop but it's very similar to Soothie). I find it helps if I put my finger in the hole on the front so it's inside the nipple (after the bink is in his mouth) and wiggle it around slightly. I don't know why but the little bit of movement seems to trigger him sucking. Also if you use this kind of paci be prepared for it to fall out of LOs mouth often, these kind don't have the bulb-shape at the end so they are harder to keep in than ones that do.
In an attempt to avoid paci "addiction" as DH and I call it, we only give him the binky as a last resort after trying to comfort him every other way we know how, we do not give it to him when he is awake (usually he sucks to put himself to sleep, he doesn't really need it when he is awake and can be otherwise entertained), and we take it out of his mouth once he's been asleep for a few minutes because we don't want him to come to need it to stay asleep and wake up screaming because it's fallen out.