If the dummy is used to a moderate extent, experts say it has no disadvantages for speech development. —Photo: BENJAMIN NOLTE/dpa
WHETHER you call them dummies, pacifiers, soothers or binkies, the artificial teats are said to cause a child’s teeth to be misaligned, disrupt breastfeeding and impede speech development.
Parents who surf the internet for their pros and cons mainly run across cons.
Disapproval of babies’ dummies has come into vogue somewhat in recent years, says parenting advice author Nora Imlau, based in Germany.
But need mums and dads really worry if their little one likes to suck on a dummy? After all, generations of parents before them have used dummies to pacify their young children.
“Newborns, and older babies too, have a sucking reflex,” explains Imlau. It can be satisfied when they’re hungry and feed at their mother’s breast, she says, and also when they’re not hungry.
“If the child’s need to suck is strong, they can spend 10 hours a day at their mother’s breast.”
While some mothers are fine with this, “for others it’s perfectly legitimate to give the child a dummy as an additional way to help them regulate.”
In Germany, according to Imlau, dummy use is officially recommended to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the sudden and unexplained death of a baby younger than one year old.
“Various studies have shown that sucking (on a dummy) at night protects children from falling into a very deep sleep, during which sleep apnoea (ie frequent interruption of breathing during sleep), a known risk factor for SIDS, can occur,” she says.
Although this subject is much discussed - some people maintain that breastfeeding helps protect against SIDS as well – Germany’s official recommendation of dummies as a SIDS risk reducer often gets short shrift, remarks Imlau.
The reason, she surmises, is that the debate has become emotionally charged, primarily in social networks, “where a number of false prejudices are in circulation – for instance, that dummies are harmful and promote development of oral addictions.
There’s no scientific proof of that, however.”
Imla recommends using the dummy sensitively. — Photo: CHRISTIN KLOSE/dpa
Moderate use
Nor do children whose use of dummies is moderate have speech development problems, she says.
“The only thing we know is that excessive dummy use increases the risk of middle ear infections. You’ve got to keep an eye on that.”
What is “moderate” use?
In Imlau’s view, it’s a child not needing a dummy when they’re emotionally well-regulated, for example during play or when being read to, but needing one when they’ve hurt themself, are tired or in an unfamiliar place.
“There’s no evidence that this level of use is harmful in any way,” she says. “For some children though, a dummy is their sole self-regulation tool, and they’ve got one in their mouth 24/7. This can lead to problems.”
Some parents nevertheless have misgivings about any dummy use at all.
Isn’t it reputed to disrupt breastfeeding, among other things? Here a warning is indeed in order, says Imlau: “Children who constantly use a dummy after they start to breastfeed may display the wrong sucking pattern at the breast.”
This is why mothers should not give newborns a dummy immediately after birth, and later only on a limited basis. It should be given “sensitively and attachment-oriented,” as she puts it.
“You do this by giving it when you recognise the child has a need to suck at that moment. If they spit it out, you don’t put it back into their mouth right away, but look to see whether the child has sucked enough and needs something else.”
It’s a matter of “dosage and handling,” she says, also as regards potential teeth misalignment.
“Yes, extreme dummy use can cause a so-called open bite,” in which the child’s permanent teeth grow in improperly and may later require braces to correct.
“But first of all, while this can happen, it doesn’t have to,” Imlau argues. “And second, children are more than their teeth. They’re human beings shaped by habits that give them emotional security.”
For this reason, she says, she finds it problematic when doctors press families during the first months of their newborn’s life to break the dummy habit – in other words, to take away the self-regulation tool that the little one has got accustomed to.
“This is psychologically difficult. Personally – as a mother of four children, some of whom used dummies – I’d always put my child’s well-being above the possibility of misaligned teeth.”
Which doesn’t mean it’s all right to use a dummy indiscriminately, she says.
“So forget it from time to time, don’t always have one at hand, and instead ask the child: ‘Would you like to cuddle?’ ‘Shall I sing something to you?’” – dpa
