This post has been sponsored by MAM Baby. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I’m sure I’m not the only mom who has ever stood at her baby’s crib and wondered, “Is she breathing?” Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is scary and as the leading cause of death among infants 1 month to one year old, it’s not something to take lightly. However, there are ways to reduce the risk. Today, I wanted to share with you my anxiety about SIDS and the steps I have taken to reduce that stress and ensure my twins are as safe as possible when they sleep.
Please note: this is my story. Motherhood isn’t easy and no mother is perfect, but whether you breastfeed or formula feed, co-sleep or put your baby in a crib, cloth diaper or use disposables, as long as you’re doing the best you can, then you’re an amazing mom and you’re doing a great job!
With the twins, I couldn’t afford any of those expensive cardiovascular monitoring socks—the ones that monitor your baby’s vital signs and alert you if there is an issue. However, those commercial monitors (those not used in hospitals or prescribed for use) do not reduce SIDS deaths and they are notorious for false alarms. I did NOT need false alarms times two! So, instead of some false security, I made sure to read up on safe sleep habits and follow the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) recommendations to reduce the risk of SIDS.
I’m a pretty big rule follower, so when it comes to safe sleep for the babies, I do things by the book. The twins are put to sleep on their backs, in their own cribs, on a firm mattress with only a flat sheet, while wearing only a onesie (to avoid overheating – we’re in Los Angeles), with nothing in the crib except for a pacifier. 
After we brought the babies home from the hospital, my night nanny had to ask me if I had pacifiers for them. I had completely forgotten about the pacifiers. There are so many little things to think about when bringing home a baby, let alone two babies! I had purchased a few different pacifiers because I had read that babies can be picky, but the only ones that my newborn twins would take were the MAM Baby Perfect Pacifiers.
Did you know that pacifier use can reduce the risk of SIDS? Doctors can’t agree on why it does, but this study discusses the different possible reasons which include “lower arousal threshold”, meaning the baby is easier to wake if there is an issue, the possibility that a “pacifier enhances the infant’s ability to breath through the mouth if the nasal airway becomes obstructed”, or that sucking on a pacifier requires forward positioning of the tongue and “decreases the risk of obstructive apnea and asphyxiation”.
Doctors don’t know if pacifier use and a lower risk of SIDS is cause and effect or a correlation, but the study shows that pacifier use reduces the risk of SIDS which is still unexplained and unpredictable. So, after learning about all this while I was pregnant, I had decided that if my twins would take pacifiers, I would allow them.
I’m not worried about pacifier use messing up the twins’ teeth. Studies show that as long as you discontinue pacifier use before the age of three, it’s unlikely to affect their teeth.
I love the glow-in-the-dark aspect of the MAM Perfect Pacifiers which help me locate a fallen pacifier that is lurking somewhere in a dark crib or … on the floor! I mean, we’ve all been there—crawling around on the floor using the cell phone flashlight to find a pacifier so we can pop it back in and go back to bed. With the glow-in-the-dark feature, it’s easy to find!
I’m sorry I’m not sharing any photos of my babies using the pacifiers while they sleep, but even when they nap during the day, it is very, very dark in their room, and I’m not willing to risk my 30-45 minute break time to get a photo. Mama’s gotta eat and scroll through Instagram!
The MAM Baby Perfect Pacifier is available on Amazon which saves my life almost daily when all of a sudden decide I need something, but I’m willing to wait two days (thank you, Prime!) to get it because, in reality, having it shipped to my house will probably get it to me faster than me being able to shower, get ready, and go to a store.
Did you use a pacifier with your baby? How did you eventually wean them from it? Let me know in a comment because I’m going to need all the advice for weaning TWO babies in a few years!
I love using a pacifier for babies. I think it’s much easier to break than thumb sucking lol. My first didn’t take one until he was about 6 months old and we used a wubbanub because he is a textile baby and wants to rub it with his fingers too. He only got it for naps and bedtime. Then at 14 months our puppy got it and chewed the tip off. I had planned on going this route anyway but was going to wait until after baby #2 came. But I wasn’t going to go buy another one for him for just a couple of months. He cried the first day and after a couple days I cut the rest of the paci part off. So now he has his animal and the flat green rubber part (he’s still teething so I wanted him to have something to chew when his teeth hurt). He also had no problems when the new baby cane 2 months later. He would pick up a paci and give it to him. Never tried putting one in his mouth. I did get a different animal for the second one though so he could tell which one was his. Good luck with the twins!!
We used pacifiers for our twins. They were 8 weeks premature so they were given at the hospital to help develop their suction. We didn’t have to wean them, as soon as they started spitting them back out was when I took them away. They were about 6 months old when they stopped using a pacifier. Good luck❤
Thanks, Amy! We’re at 8 months now and they are still going strong with the pacifiers – I think they even play a little game in their cribs in the morning swapping their pacifiers back and forth! But yes, as soon as I start to see less interest, I’m going to take them away.
My younger sister ( who is now 55 yo) used a pacifier because she was colicky. As soon as she could grasp things, she went to sleep with one in her mouth and one in each hand! My mother weaned her from it first by telling her that it did not leave the house. If she wanted to go to the store with Mom, the pacifier had to stay behind. At some point, she “lost” them one by one until they were gone. Probably took a few weeks to get to that point.
My little boy took one for a short while until he was around three months and didn’t want it anymore. He loves cuddles, but is good at calming himself sucking his own little fingers. When he gets really upset, he has a favorite song, I listened to a lot when I was pregnant and would also sing to him and it somehow never fails to calm him down. He’s currently seven months old.
All three of ours used pacifiers, did not know about reduction in SIDS
This may sound odd but when #1 was in bed at night and looking for his pacifier(Nunny in our family ) I could hear him scratching the sheets looking for it to soothe himself back to sleep. When he could not find it he would wake up crying. MY mom had a solution that worked. We put 4 nunnies around him and he would always find one plop it in and go right back to sleep. Thru the night sleep and reduction for SIDS. Win,win.
In my opinion the longer you wait to take a pacifier away the worse it is! My daughter naturally stopped around a year and I was not going to let her go much past a year either. I am currently watching my friend struggle to take her two year olds. I also used to put a few in her crib and she usually found one without crying.
I used pacifiers for all 3 of my babies. We used them at nap &bed time & also if they needed comforting for some reason. When it was time to give them up, I talked to them about it first when putting them to sleep. “You’re getting to be too big for that pacifier. Pacifiers are for babies. You’re getting to be a big boy (it girl as needs be). You can just give it to me when you don’t need it anymore. Similar talk went on every time it was afforded to them, very matter of factly without pressure. Let it be their decision. When they did give me the pacifier, I did not immediately throw it out, just put it away out of sight in case. My youngest did ask for it again a few days later. I told him that I had it but I didn’t remember exactly where I put it, that I’d go look for it & bring it to him. If he had acted at all distressed at that time, I would have ‘found’ it right away, but he wasn’t. He went to sleep & never asked for it again. You kind of have to play the situation by ear depending on how your baby reacts. This isn’t a hard & fast rule, but letting the child make the decision when they are comfortable with it just felt right for us. It was very hassle-free.
I first fostered my daughter and then we adopted, we got her at 15 days old, she was born with 5 different drugs in her blood cord. I gave her a pacifier to help with the effects of withdrawals from the drugs, she became very attached to it. I tried everything I could think of but nothing worked until I started snipping a little piece off of it every day and I told her that she was sucking it away cuz she was a big girl and big girls didn’t need them. when it became a nub she handed it to me and said she didn’t want it anymore she was a big girl now and hasn’t asked for it since.
I have six children and they all had pacifers. I let them keep them as long as they wanted to. One of them stopped at five months and three kept theirs years or longer. One would get mad and throw it and his big sister would find it and give it him. One day she couldn’t find it that was that. One would hand his to the childcare worker in the morning and he got it back when he left. He threw it out the car window, we told him it was gone and he quit. We had one that was two and we had a new baby. We tried to take the older one’s away which resulted in the older one throwing herself in the floor, screaming and kicking . Needless to say she got it back but I don’t remember how long she kept it after that but she stopped when she decided and I didn’t care. It didn’t affect their teeth. Lastly our pediatrician said they would get rid of when they started when they started preschool because of peer pressure. By the time the sixth one came along they could keep them till high school for all I cared.
Grandma speaking here. For goodness sake take away their pacifier. Goodness so.e other “adult” might make a comment on your parenting 🙊 ( btw who cares what they think) my two older Grandies 1 had his in the house and in bed until he was 4 did not use it all the time but it was there if he wanted it. 2 she had it until three 1/2 same way as #1. 3 is just two and only looks for it during the day if she is tired. I figure if it gives them peace and comfort leave them alone. They have alot of time ahead to be big boys and girls. Lighten up and Relax mom’s and dad’s.
While I don’t use them for my son (he just won’t take them, prefers his thumb) my mom told us that to wean my siblings and I off our pacifiers, she would put something that taste bad on the end of it and eventually we stopped putting them in our mouths!
I love reading about your twins.
My daughter is about to turn 2 and she still has her pacifier. She uses it mainly at night and when her teeth are hurting.
She didn’t use it at daycare at all.
Thank you so much for this post! So many people give me a hard time about my son and his pacifier. He’s 20 months not even 2 yet and he’s off the bottle but he loves his pacifier. It helps him soothe through new situations and when he’s tired. Everyone should inform themselves about teeth misalignment its only an issue after about 3 years old. If your child doesn’t depend on one well great and if they do then that’s ok too! Let your child feel secure and happy.
I had a pacifier until I was 3. I never needed braces and always got compliments on my smile/teeth. No idea what brand since I was born in 1953! But glad to hear people still give them to there babies. My son used one (nuk I think?) until he lost it at about 18 months. He has pretty teeth too.
My second child held onto her pacifier a bit longer than the others. I decided one night we just needed to be done. We went out and bought a variety of bells. Then we searched the house for stashed pacifiers. We replaced each pacifier with a bell and left them exactly where we found them. The next day when she found them, we told her the fairy came and took them to bring to the new baby’s! Like the tooth fairy, she leaves a gift as payment. My daughter is now 15, and still loves her very large bell collection!
I know a lot of people do use pacifiers for their babies. I had four sons and they wouldn’t take them. However, I believe if you don’t give them pacifiers. They don’t have the need to rely on them and learn to console themselves with parents help, of course. If they take a pacifier, when they wake up, they have to have it to go back to sleep. It’s just something they depend on all the time when they really don’t need it. That’s my take on it.