Modern children very often refuse to take a pacifier. But for some parents, it becomes a real salvation in the period of colic or teething. When this difficult period ends, parents do not know how to wean the baby from the nipple. We will try to help you in this difficult matter, and answer the questions that concern you.
Can I give a pacifier to a child?
The question, the only true answer to which has not yet been given. No doctor has yet been able to compare the importance of harm from sucking a dummy (which, by the way, many doctors deny) and a quiet sleep of parents and children. Whether your baby needs a nipple, it's up to you. Some experienced parents offer this method: offer a pacifier to your baby. If he takes it, then you can use it (but, of course, not always), and if not - then you do not have to decide anything, the child has already decided everything for you. Follow a questionable advice and forcefully accustom the baby to the nipple by smearing it with honey (dipping into sugar) certainly not worth it.
And if, for example, a child does not sleep without a nipple, does it make sense to torture yourself and the child? You should know that sooner or later all children who develop according to their age will be able to sleep without a nipple.
In any case, only you can accurately determine whether a child needs a pacifier, and not neighbors or distant relatives who never saw the child in the eye, but who know exactly how to bring him up.
When is it necessary to wean the child from the nipple?
Again, only the mother of the child knows the answer to this question. And she, observing the change in his behavior, can notice the very moment when a dummy from the category of necessary things grows into a habit.
What should she pay attention to? The most noticeable signal to the fact that you can already try to wean the child from the nipple is his indifference to her. How can it manifest itself? During this period, the child can not long enough to remember about the pacifier, do his own things, and most importantly, he does not ask for a pacifier. And if suddenly he sees his pacifier, or sees a pacifier in the mouth of another baby, and only then remembers about it, then this too is a signal that one can begin to wean the child from the nipple.
In addition, there are three cases where the mother should urgently decide how to wean the child from the nipple:
- The baby develops a delayed development of hearing or speech. But the doctor must say this. External observations like "Why does not he (she) tell you yet?" Do not always indicate problems.
- If the child sucks a nipple for a long time, and he is already three years old. By this time, as a rule, already at all children the sucking reflex disappears, and together with it the need for its satisfaction dies away.
- If your child prefers society nipples to communicate with other children. In this case, there may be problems with socialization, and the baby should be attached to games with peers.
How to disaccustom a child to suck a nipple?
There are two different in their sieve way to wean the baby from the nipple.
The first method is cardinal. He provides that one day all nipples "mysteriously" disappear from the house. You can tell the child the story that the mouse took the nipple, for its little ones. But it should be noted that for the child this is a serious enough injury, and this method is not suitable for every child.
The second method is gradual. To begin with, try to limit the communication with the nipple only by the time of sleep. During wakefulness, in every possible way, entice the child with games, so that he does not even have time to remember the nipple. Just gradually, you should tell him that the nipple will soon go to the same mouse, or to the little boy who was born next door. And to him, to such an adult person, it is already possible as father and mother to sleep without a nipple. Or you can offer the child to throw a pacifier in the garbage or special containers for this (this tradition has taken root in some cities of the world).