Study: Pacifiers Not To Blame For Early Weening
July 17 -- Babies do not stop breastfeeding early simply because of the use of pacifiers, researchers say.
But frequent pacifier use as well as early weaning do point to breastfeeding problems. These problems can have negative implications for the baby, both nutritionally and emotionally, according to a study in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.
The findings partly clear the pacifier of its bad reputation but not entirely, says Ronald Barr, professor of pediatrics and psychology at Montreal's McGill University and co-author of the study.
"This result is the first evidence from a randomized, controlled trial, the strongest design we have for assessing causality, to indicate that pacifiers are not a cause of early weaning," he said. "The assumption that pacifiers were a cause of early weaning was the strongest argument for discouraging their use in a variety of campaigns, including the World Health Organization's Baby Friendly Hospital initiative.
"The use of the pacifier, in and of itself, is not likely to have anything to do with how long the infant can, will, or will want to breastfeed."
Indication of Other Problems
Rather, early weaning and pacifier use may indicate other breastfeeding problems, Barr says. These may include a mother's pain associated with nursing or inconvenience for working mothers who cannot nurse at work.
But the results are far from a ringing endorsement of pacifier use.
"This is not a paper that shows much positive effect for pacifiers either, at least in regard to the one thing that their very name implies they do well — pacify infants," Barr said. "For the kind of distress — fussing and unsoothable crying — that infants do for minutes and sometimes hours at a time there was no measurable difference between the infants that used, or did not use, pacifiers."
Pacifiers present a host of health considerations for babies even when early weaning is out of the picture, according to other experts.
Related Stories
ABC News Live