Anyone for Seconds?: The interesting things you learn from the news.

Anyone for Seconds?

Secondary Infertility is the name of the game. Who wants to play? A TTC blog of internal torture.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

The interesting things you learn from the news.

From a well known news source.....

"Doctors now believe that babies should be given a pacifier at bedtime to reduce the risk of SIDS. Experts believe that the pacifier prevents the baby from sleeping too deeply - a problem with babies prone to SIDS. However, you should not reinsert your babys pacifier if it falls out during sleep, never coat the pacifier with any sweet substance, and dont force a pacifier on your baby if he or she refuses it."

I remember very clearly the ration of poo-poo that I received when I allowed my son (now 5) to use a pacifier. I was told all kinds of malarchy about how I'd never be able to get him off the binky (way easier than I thought) and about how his teeth would be all screwed up (no, him falling repeatedly on his face did that) and other nonsense. I still think the binky is a good idea. It's easier to break a kid of the binky than it is of the thumb because you can take the binky away. My friend's two kids are thumb-suckers and she's used a lot of energy and thought on the issue. Not that her attitude about it isn't healthy, it is. She has just had to deal with more crap about it than I had to about the binky issue. Most of the time I think the binky vs. thumb issue is six of one half dozen of the other. It's the "binkies are evil" issue that annoys me. First off, all children have self-comforting methods. Some are healthy enough, some really aren't. I still think that binkies don't hurt anything. I don't think thumb sucking does either. Second, it's not a bad thing for a baby to see mama as it's own personal pacifier, but for how long? If you are breastfeeding exclusively and into attachment parenting more power to you, but what if you're not? Some of us want to do things by ourselves at some point. Maybe you'd like to go back to work, go out to a movie, shower alone, button your shirt. Maybe your baby is collicy. Maybe you work from home. Maybe (going out on a limb here) you just don't enjoy the incessant sound of your baby howling. I know I didn't.

My point is this, not only do binkies (and thumbs) allow your child to learn that first way to cope with a big, mean world, they are convenient, easily stopped, perfect for sterilization and according to doctors, healthy. Maybe now I'll hear the end of the statements of how evil binkies are.

posted by The Writer 2:58 PM

3 Comments:

At 5:05 PM, Sabrina said…

Good Lord, Yes. Couldn't live without the binkie here, and we are now starting to leat toward thumb sucking ( which I'd prefer) and I couldn't be more pleased. Self sooth away, wee one. At some point they need to learn that comfort can come in many forms.
At 9:21 AM, Life Is Good said…

Binkys are not evil and neither is thumb sucking. It is the stupid social stigma that is the BULLS**T here!
However I think that binkys in the mouths of three year olds is a little silly. If I could have gotten my kids to stop sucking their thumbs by two or three I would have been exceptionally happy. Turns out that all the critism that they have recieved from a lot of different sources is the biggest reason that they still suck their thumbs.
Boils down to what your preference is. Once they are toddlers though I see lots of parents shoving binkys in their kids mouths when they are not crying--they just want the kid to shut up and that I am not okay with.
At 6:37 PM, Lollipop Goldstein said…

Binkies are not evil (or I am doing everything in the world wrong). On the contrary, babies need to suck--and mine love the binkies. We only have them in crib so naptime is actually a special treat. Take that all people who think binkies are evil!