Very useful for families with toddlers who steal the paci and put it on their toes, then run through the house pretending to be a velociraptor.

Two of mine were sucky fiends too.
I think that I offered all the other three a dummy when they were miserable and no other consoling seemed to work, but they just let it hang in their mouth, or spat it out. Perhaps they were too old to be interested then.

I tend to avoid dummy use until breastfeeding is well established but I’m not sure I’m persuaded by the nipple confusion argument.
My two dummy suckers never seemed to have a problem with the breast. They were so sucky they never seemed to stop sucking, so they were great breast feeders!

There were times, later, with an inconsolable ‘non dummy sucking’ baby that I wondered whether it would have been better to have actually encouraged a dummy habit ( rather than, like you, use it only as a last resort)

I think alot of the very visceral objections to dummies are actually more aesthetic than anything else.
Having said that, for all their comfort value, the do present practical problems too ( keeping clean. losing, weaning off etc) so I guess I’ll carry on with my ‘wait and see’ approach.

As long as baby is growing, and mama and baby are happy using a pacifier, then I think it’s great!

No, I don’t really decide ahead of time. Each baby is so different, I just wait and see what they seem to need. Some of my children just seem to have a very high sucking need/reflex.

I breastfeed but haven’t really experienced any problems with nipple confusion, like I’ve read about in parenting books and magazines. I will say that Alli will NOT usually let ME give her a binky – she wants the human version!

Just to clarify, incase you think I’m a raging dummy snob.I’m not. Two of my five used them, and I suspect the other three didn’t take to them because they were offered too late. Or maybe they just didn’t like the. Who knows?

The issue of whether/when to introduce the dummy is a perennial one, and I often get asked my own thoughts on the matter.
Generally speaking, I am a fan of the judicious use of dummies for little babies as they get alot of comfort from simply sucking. But I’m just not entirely sure what constitutes ‘judicious use’. Furthermore, I’m not sure whether it’s better to ‘wait and see’ and offer breast only for the first few weeks, or whether offering a dummy early could cause some ‘nipple confusion’ ( which is one of the anti dummy claims I’ve heard)

I just know you have some thoughts worthy to be shared!

I’m guessing you decide ahead of time to introduce it early. Did you do this with the others? Did all of yours take to the dummy, or did any spit it out?

Questions, questions…

Just incase you need inspiration for post ideas!

You have beautiful kids, all of them!

God bless you, your new little one and your whole crew!

Looks like we have the next generation of Little Flowers all lined up.