Pacifiers
If you choose to give your baby a pacifier, the following ideas may help minimize any interference with breastfeeding:
Introduce a pacifier only after breastfeeding is well established (different for every mom and baby, but usually at least 3-4 weeks).
Offer the pacifier only after first offering the breast and allowing your baby to nurse until satisfied.
Don’t use the pacifier to “put off” a feeding – this is a recipe for diminished milk supply and slow weight gain. Instead offer it only to satisfy a need for “comfort” sucking if you are unable or unwilling to let your baby meet that need at the breast.
Don’t assume that if your baby takes the pacifier and goes to sleep, he wasn’t hungry – the act of sucking, even if he gets no food, produces a hormone that causes sleepiness. Sucking on the pacifier may simply cause him to sleep through his hunger.
If you use the pacifier to calm your baby at a time when you can’t nurse (in the car, for example), be sure to offer the breast as soon as it is possible, even if you must wake the baby to do so.
