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Home › Articles › Guiding Baby's Development › How Old Is Too Old for the Pacifier?

How Old Is Too Old for the Pacifier?

Two Moms and an Expert Sound Off

By Lisa A. Goldstein

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Binky, plug or paci? It doesn't matter which word you use because they're all the same. Indeed, any use of pacifiers can be controversial. When is a child too old for a pacifier? See what two moms and an expert have to say.

Pacifiers Are OK!

Vicky Jaffe of Boston, Mass., let her daughter, Nicole, have a pacifier until she lost her first baby tooth, at about age 4.

"My daughter was very attached to her pacifier," Jaffe says. "She used to have her pacifier at naptime and bedtime for years. Finally daycare said she couldn't have it in the toddler room during naps. She abstained when she was at daycare, but she would arrive home and take a 'hit' of the pacifier like a cigarette smoker who had been stuck on an airplane for six hours! She was also very aware of the social implications of still enjoying her baby pacifier, which is why she didn't like to admit to people outside the family that she used a pacifier even though there was no shame attached to it by her parents or other family caregivers."

Nicole found the pacifier very soothing from a very early age, her mother says. It didn't interfere with her nursing properly as a newborn through 10 months old. It also helped her fall asleep and stay asleep. "I guess I'm a believer in letting the child take the lead in certain behaviors," Jaffe says. "I also saw lots of kids sucking their thumbs, which seemed worse than sucking on a pacifier. At some point society takes that pacifier away; not so with the thumb!"

Jaffe eventually made a pact with her daughter that when her first baby tooth fell out, then she would give up the pacifier so that she wouldn't have crooked adult teeth. "I recall our very supportive pediatric dentist gently discussing with Nicole that she should consider giving up the pacifier before her big teeth appeared," Jaffe says.


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Re: How Old Is Too Old for the Pacifier? by Traci on 10/06/2008 11:27PM

I think pacifiers should be taken away by the first birthday. It drives me nuts seeing 2-, 3- and 4-year-old kids running around with one in their mouths. Sucking is a reflex in small babies, not toddlers and preschoolers. Enjoyed the article. Thought it was a very interesting debate on a common subject.

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