Breastfeeding Moms - are you using pacifiers?

fancefpp · August 2011

My DH and I are struggling with whether or not to give DS a pacifier. He will be two weeks tomorrow and we have had a lot of trouble breastfeeding. He seems to be getting better but it's not 100% yet.

He doesn't seem to latch at all when he's tired and we had to give him a bottle of breast milk about once a day for the last week. When he does latch, it's not perfect but getting better. I feel like sometimes when he is fussy a pacifier would really help, but I don't want to mess up the breastfeeding.

Matt Dvorak · August 2011

Our LO got really fussy at the hospital before my milk came in - he just could not be satisfied. We tried a pacifier and that helped us get some sleep. He probably uses it only 10 minutes a day now, so not much.

I haven't had latch issues past the first few tries.

Leah678 · August 2011

We give DS a Soothie paci because in the hospital he was using me to pacify him. We didn't have any nipple confusion after introducing it and he doesn't take it much during the day.

Jen&Peter · August 2011

I tried with DS3 the other night because I think he needed to sooth and was not hungry (this was after I fed him 3-4 times in 1 hour) but he was not interested at all.

Same thing happened with DS1. He was not interested at all and rarely used it.

With DS2, that was another story!! He really really needed it It all just depends on the baby.

If you are not 100% with the latch and getting the hang of BFing yet, I would wait until you and baby have got that down first

kjuryfl · August 2011

LO has been using one (soothie) since day 2. She does not have any latch issues and goes from pacifier to breast just fine.

ijack · August 2011

Yes! She's a sucker and needs to suck to calm herself. The first few days when she wouldn't take a paci (we use a soothie) sucked because she was on my boob all the time.

mairanellis · August 2011

Yes, we are using the soothie one from the hospital. No nipple confusion here.

eesome · August 2011

Absolutely! We use the Wubbanub paci, and with both my kids there was no nipple confusion.

mcatmay · August 2011

We've used a pacifier before my milk came in because my LO was on me continuously. This worked for a couple of days but, once the milk came in, our DD had zero interest in the pacifier. It did not seem to cause nipple confusion.

Our pediatrician told us that studies did not support nipple confusion - that those that had nipple confusion had breastfeeding issues BEFORE a pacifier was introduced.

All that aside, however, i must admit that we didn't have too much trouble with latch so i'm not sure if the story would change if there were latch issues.

GingerCupcake · August 2011

No paci's for either daughter here. They just haven't seemed to need them. We even tried to give them but they wouldn't keep them in and spit them out immediately. There was the odd time when DD1 was sick and wanted to use me as a pacifier a bit, but that passed in time and was not a big deal.

Jelliebean1982 · August 2011

Yes, but DS was using me as a pacifier. After hour long nursing sessions in the hospital and still rooting I asked the nurse for one. My poor boobs needed a break. You can try one and see if it helps or hurts. Your baby is so young it won't notice if you give it one day but not the next.

indytara · August 2011

kjuryfl:
LO has been using one (soothie) since day 2. She does not have any latch issues and goes from pacifier to breast just fine.

this for us too. DS has his soothie maybe 30 min a day. Just when we cant figure out whats bugging him!

BnchaNums · August 2011

Yes, occasionally. I'm using a nipple shield anyway and the lactation consultant said it was fine as long as she doesn't start to regress on the latch.

leducsmith · August 2011

My DS started using the soothie the 2nd day in the hospital. He had to learn to suck since he was born early. It never caused any issue with nipple confusion and never had an issue with latch either when we got to start breastfeeding about a week later!!!

harri339 · August 2011

Yes, we held out for about a week but then gave in. It was the best decision. He actually latches better now than before. I don't know if it has anything to do with the pacifier but it definitely hasn't hurt.

Fuzzy21 · August 2011

We are using a pacifier. We waited until he was 3 weeks old to introduce it. Devin likes to drink too fast, so when I feed him via the bottle (we do both, breast and via bottle with breastmilk) we alternate the bottle and pacifier to help slow down his eating. This helped minimize how much air he swallowed.

At first, I had planned to be a no-pacifier mom. That didn't last long

TanyaKM · August 2011

I'm not opposed to it, but we haven't yet. He's only a week old and breastfeeding is going great, so I don't see a need for it right now. I'd like to wait at least another week or two if we do end up introducing one...

cloud9brenda · August 2011

Yes I am, it really soothes her and I felt like a lot of the times I was BF her she was using ME as a pacifier. So far it has not affected the BF at all.

dsdoyle12 · August 2011

kjuryfl:
LO has been using one (soothie) since day 2. She does not have any latch issues and goes from pacifier to breast just fine.

Same here, we have not had any nipple confusion with the soothie and she barely uses it now...just when she is really tired and having trouble sleeping.

quietvoice · August 2011

Like many others have said, we're using a soothie, but only because DS was using me as his pacifier. We have not had latch issues, nipple confusion, etc. We only introduced the paci a day or two ago, so BFing was pretty well established for us.

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