I'm really confused about this.
My sister in law is very anti pacifier or sucking fingers so she rocks her baby to sleep every night even though he is over 6 months old. I also used to be anti paci, and would like to wean my 4.75 month old baby off the paci soon. But I like that with the paci I can just put her on my bed and she will fall asleep without being rocked to sleep. Once she falls asleep I transfer her to the crib, and in the long run I hope to put her straight in her crib with the paci.
Which approach do you think is better because I sometimes thing my SIL's way might be better because her LO doesnt use a paci at all, so shedoesnt have anything to wean him off of.
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She might have to wean her baby off rocking and sucking fingers though?
It was really easy to wean DD off the paci, so I'm glad we used one and she doesn't suck her fingers.
ETA - I would also much rather be able to just put my baby down, drowsy but awake, instead of rocking. It saves so much time.
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I don't think either are better, it's just whichever you prefer. My husband's family is super against pacifiers, and my kids never took to them anyway, so we went the rocking to sleep route. I don't think it's any better than pacifiers, though, because either way eventually you have to get rid of that sleep aid.
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We started with pacifiers because sometimes she just needed to suck/soothe herself to sleep. Once she found her fingers, the pacifier just got in the way, so she basically weaned herself.
And we always had the issue of her waking up as soon as we laid her in her crib after rocking her to sleep. She did not like losing the body heat! -
I don't think one is worse than the other--depends on the baby and parents. My LO is either rocked or nursed to sleep at night. I was anti-pacifier before her and believe me after having her I would love to use one for a while, but she hates them. So rocking it is for us since we don't want to CIO.
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We do both rocking & paci... not good. Hahaha.
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Oops I voted wrongly
I meant to say pacifier dependency is worse lol!!!I see 2 yo's with pacis and it eeks me out. idk just doesn't look right.
Cobi weaned himself off the paci at 5 mos, I was so thankful. He sucks his fingers, but he's not a thumb sucker (which I think is worse). We stopped rocking him to sleep awhile ago too. So thankfully he's not dependent on either.
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We'll use the pacifier as long as she is swaddled. When she starts to use a sleep sack then we'll try to get her to suck on her fingers. I don't think either is worse than the other. Although, I do love rocking my LO.
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Personal preference. Neither one is better.
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Rocking to sleep is exhausting, so I'd prefer a paci. But that's just because I'm lazy
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I accidentally voted pacifier dependency but I think rocking is way worse. The reality though, is that I wouldn't want my LO to need either rocking or the paci to fall asleep.
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II don't think one is bad or one is good. You just have to do what feels right for your baby. My lo lost interest in the pacifier when she found her thumb (which I have no problem with) and I rock her to sleep (which I also have no problem with).
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my mom was against the pacifier, so i ended up using my fingers to self-sooth. i think this was worse for me, because i didn't stop sucking my two middle fingers until i was 4. my mom had to bribe me with a kitten to get me to stop. i think it's easier to get a baby off of a pacifier because if they don't have it they can't suck it, whereas i always had my fingers!
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We do neither but i think theyre equal. I did rock her to sleep for the first few weeks.
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I think the goal is to get the baby to sooth themselves to sleep. And I honestly think that anyway the baby can self sooth is the right way. My baby is 9 months and never wanted a paci or her finger, but she's totally dependent on her lovey. 'She goes right down when she has it- so is that bad? No idea. Do whatever works is what I say.
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I think being dependent on rocking to fall asleep is 'worse' than a paci dependency, although I think a lot of it is personal preference. For me, I'm happy for LO to use the paci until 6 months as it's recommended by the AAP to reduce the risk of SIDS. We'll start weaning her after that if she's still taking it, but as she's 12 weeks now and already prefers sucking on her hand, we may lose the paci sooner than that!
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Thanks everyone!
@Coco Bee: I agree, 2 year olds with pacis kinda bothers me too!
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I accidentally weaned my oldest off his paci at 4 months b/c we went to SIL's house and forgot all 4 of them. Oops. He did fine w/o it... BUT now he's a thumb sucker. He only sucks it when he goes to sleep in bed and in the car. For some reason he always sucks it in the car. So weird. But will never suck it in public. I'm not really sure if I like either the paci or the thumb! LOL! I think the paci is easier to wean off than a thumb b/c it's not stuck to their hand. I guess we'll see how I'm going to go about weaning him off his thumb. I've already offered an incentive toy but he only lasted for a week and now he's back to sucking in the car again. Oh well. His pediatrician once told me he might self wean once he starts school? Like kindergarten? I guess we'll see in a couple of years!
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@erwoo: lol! Its a good thing he didnt cry when you forgot all the pacifiers! I hear they have some type of thumb paint that gives their thumb a bitter taste so they dont suck it anymore
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I am indecisive on this one. I think rocking to sleep is pretty bad, but I also know a 9 year old who still sucks her fingers. So much that three of her fingers have large calluses on them and her front teeth stick out (permanents...). So...ha ha I don't have an answer!
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@JennyLayneAZ: ugh. awful. I used to babysit a girl who was a thumb sucker until she was 11 yo! her poor mother tried everything.
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wow... I have seen a 20+ woman sucking her thumb. I saw her in another car when I was traffic and she sucked it the entire time.
I have also seen a teenager sucking on a pacifier in south east London, about 6 years ago. It was actually a group of them, I'm guessing it was some weird gang thing -
Rocking! So tiring, especially when they get heavy!
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I'll be honest with you, I rock our lo to sleep. I plan on continuing to do it. She has a paci but doesn't rely on it to sleep. Maybe it's because she's our only child, I don't know but I won't mind rocking her for however long. I also don't think paci's are the devil. For big success, they're great. Most of my friends said they just did the cold turkey route to wean them of it.
As for fingers/thumb.... I do worry about those. You can never take those away....
So I have no good suggestions but, that's my story. Ha.
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I'm with art bee. I'm lazy and don't care if LO is dependent on the paci for however long. At some point LO will self wean. I could care less.
But the rocking--my poor arms and back! -
Personal preference. Either way it's something thats going to end at some point.
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@Mrsbells: Oooh, thanks! I'm going to look for that thumb paint!
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my 2.5 y/o has her soother still.
But not in public! So it's not like you would know...if I hadn't just told you.
She had to suck to sleep, better the soother than my boob everytime she woke up. Rocking would just make her cranky.
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At this point I don't think anything is wrong with either....But if you guy's kids were like almost 2yrs old...then each would be equally guilty of the crime!
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@Mrsbells: Thanks!
I meant to say pacifier dependency is worse lol!!!
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