Soothers and breast feeding babies - Breastfeeding Message Board

E1979 · 07-17-2007, 05:48 PM

This is my first post on the infant care board. I just had my first baby, a son, on the 9th of July. We had some trouble nursing at first but after 2 visits to the lactation consultant things seem to be going ok.
My question is Tanner seems to ask to be nursed to soothe himself. Often he asked to be feed and feeds for less than 5 mins and falls to sleep.
Does offering a soother really effect breast feeding??? I can see the whole bottle thing because it is easier to get milk so they may get lazy. But they are not feeding from a soother so I was thinking that it wouldn't interfere. But you hear and read so many contradicting things about the soother issue. Plus when we made the appointment to have him circumsized the nurse told us to make sure we bring a soother.
Any first hand advice about the soother controversy???

KeltoKel · 07-17-2007, 07:43 PM

I never had problems with the soother (pacifier) and breast feeding. Babies need to suck and it often calms them. If your son has breast feeding down pretty well, I wouldn't worry about the pacifier.

Oh, and CONGRATS!!!!

sem627 · 07-17-2007, 08:57 PM

I think it's fine once bf is established.

AZ24 · 07-17-2007, 10:56 PM

When I first had my dd (she is now 15 months old), I had problems breastfeeding, and I too sought the help of a lactation consultant. After that, I breastfed her for a year. At first I was really anti-pacifier, but then I decided I wanted some sleep

. So at about 1 month old, we introduced a pacifier. My dd would gag at first, but quickly got used to it. From 5 weeks on, I never had to feed her in the middle of the night. My latest feeding was around 11pm and the earliest was around 7am. Swaddling and Pacifiers really saved our lives!

Some babies like them and others don't.

E1979 · 07-18-2007, 09:59 AM

Thanks very much for the advice. That makes me feel better. My 2 brothers were breast babies and they both got soothers very early and my Mom said she never ever had a problem with feeding them.
I do feel like nursing is going really really well now, but I guess the absolute worst case scenerio is we have to take it away if we feel that his nursing is taking a turn for the worse.
Thanks again.