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Does pacifier use cause more night wakings?

dolcenientedolceniente member
in 1st Trimester
Hi i'm a first time mum in desperate need of some help.

My baby is about 6 weeks old and we have recently introduced the pacifier to him to help him  sleep at night. Before the pacifier, we patted/ rocked him to sleep, and he would sleep for 4 hours, then 3 hour stretches. After the pacifier, although we could get him to sleep faster, his sleep seems to be now 1 hour before he wakes up crying for his pacifier! Did i break my baby sleep habits with the pacifier or is something else cause the shorter sleep stretches? I have no problem with waking up to reinsert the pacifier in his mouth a few times a night based on his previous sleep pattern, but waking up every hour is really draining.
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Re: Does pacifier use cause more night wakings?

  • WishilivedinfloridaWishilivedinflorida member
    Hi! You may get more responses if you post this elsewhere (this is the 1st trimester board for pregnant ladies). Anyhow, congratulations. I have a seven week old boy, myself. He has taken a pacifier since the hospital. Unfortunately, every kid is different. Mine won't fuss once he spits it out, but some babies do. 

    3-4 hour stretches of sleep are pretty good, considering how young your baby is. A pacifier won't help him sleep longer. He's still driven to wake by hunger and also his circadian rhythm is still being established. I would recommend trying to put him to bed using your old methods without the pacifier and see if he goes back to sleeping a few hours at a time. You can't force him to sleep longer at this point. One night you will get lucky and may get a 5-6 hour stretch in the coming weeks...my son does this from time to time, but other nights is up every three hours. That's the best you can hope for at this stage. Good luck!
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  • Polythene PamPolythene Pam member
    If he can go back without pacifier that's a great stretch of sleep at that age! My daughter (now 3.5) took a pacifier from day 1 but I remember a stretch (older, 4 or 5 months) when we were cursing the pacifier gods as we stumbled out of bed 5979857 times at night to put it back in her mouth. Then she finally could pop it back in, we put about 10 in her crib with her and it was fine (till we pulled it for good at age 3 but that was even fine).

    we're expecting kid 2 now, if he/she is ok without the pacifier I won't force it, I do feel like it helped my daughter but every kid is different :)


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  • nanner26nanner26 member
    edited May 2017
    Babies go through a growth spurt at about 6 weeks. This can affect their sleep. I would recommend looking up the "Wonder Weeks" so you can see when you baby goes through different mental leaps which can change their behavior. That may help! 
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