Lots of parents worry that by giving their baby or child a dummy, that they are being bad parents. They worry that there child will end up with crooked teeth and that they will never be able to get them off their dummy. While there is some truth in the above statement, it is not always the case, and using a dummy can have its advantages too.
We consider the pros and cons of giving your baby a dummy.
Pros
- A dummy is a quick and easy way to pacify your crying/screaming baby.
- A dummy helps to soothes and calm your baby leaving you more time to fit in other jobs. If your breast feeding it can also give you a welcome break
- Sucking a dummy is thought to produce more saliva which in turn fights plaque
- Dummies are better for your child's teeth than thumb sucking
- Dummies can be taken away when you think its time to give up the habit, on the other hand its a lot more difficult to stop thumb sucking!
Cons
- Dummies can lead to your child's teeth being crooked or developing an over bite, which may mean they require braces in the future
- Dummies can affect babies speech development, as if your child has a dummy they are less likely to babble which is the foundation of speech development.
- Dummies can mask hunger. Sucking a dummy may mean that your child isn't eating very well, so don't give your baby one if they aren't putting on satisfactory amounts of weight.
- Dummies carry germs which your child then ingests, this can lead to more cases things like ear infections and diarrhoea. Always sterilise dummies to keep them clean.
Useful Tips
Below are some tips on to avoid dummy pitfalls and make them work to your advantage.
- Limit dummy usage for times only when your baby is crying or screaming and they need to be calmed down.
- If you use a dummy to help soothe your child when going to sleep, make sure you remove it once they have fallen asleep. This will prevent them becoming too reliant on it.
- Have a back up supply of dummies so that you can swap their dummy for clean and sterilised one to prevent illness
- Do not attache ribbons or strings to your dummies, to prevent them getting around baby's throat.
- If you can try using a dummy for only the first 12 weeks when babies like to comfort suck. It will be much harder to remove dummies from your child after this time.
