Consequences Of Excessive Pacifier Use
While a pacifier will likely accompany a child positively during the first few years of life, it can also have negative consequences. In other words, excessive use of a pacifier can end up being something bad for the child. Let’s show you why below.
Why is it a good thing to avoid excessive pacifier use?
Quitting excessive pacifier use in time is a victory. In other words, we must prevent excessive pacifier use for longer than necessary so that it does not become a problem. Because? Here are the reasons.
It can make it difficult to start breastfeeding
It’s not the same as sucking a mother’s breast and sucking a plastic nipple. So, if the baby is learning to breastfeed, it is not recommended to put other types of nipples in his mouth. The reason? Because we might end up confusing the little one. He will end up not moving his tongue in the same way and he won’t know what to do.
These cases are called beak confusion syndrome. This problem can be caused by both the pacifier and the use of different nipples. This is the main reason why the use of pacifiers is not recommended until breastfeeding becomes a routine practice known by the baby.
May favor the appearance of infections in the mouth
Using a pacifier can cause certain infections to appear in the baby’s mouth. In general, one of the most frequent is a fungal infection. It is a disease caused by the candida albicans fungus .
Caries is another type of infection, although many people don’t know it. Excessive use of the pacifier can cause the famous baby bottle cavities.
May cause certain anomalies in teeth
Prolonged use of a pacifier can also lead to certain anomalies in the teeth. This is because it can end up causing deformities in the baby’s jaw. In particular, you can make the upper arch to be positioned in front of the lower one. This is called dental malocclusion.
Another problem that may appear, in this sense, is that the upper teeth do not fit with the lower ones. Then, it would lead to an open bite.
This bite occurs mainly when pacifiers with a very stiff central axis are used. Also, when the baby is not using a pacifier, he usually breathes through his mouth rather than his nose. All of this encourages the appearance of anomalies in the palate. It also favors the appearance of deformities in the oral cavity.
speech problems
It will also affect language development. In order for the child to correctly articulate phonemes, it is necessary that he or she does not have malformations in the mouth.
These disorders can be corrected. However, in this sense, it was discovered that among this type of problem would be that of mispronouncing certain sounds.
May cause ear infection
An ear infection would occur because the baby breathes through his mouth, as we’ve already said. In this case, he doesn’t finish closing the Eustachian tube by swallowing the saliva.
How to avoid these problems
To prevent our baby from having these problems, in addition to trying to prevent the child from using a pacifier for a long time throughout the day, the following factors must be taken into account:
- Pacifier use should definitely be discontinued around 2 or 3 years of age. This way we will be able to avoid malformations in the mouth.
- It is important to take into account the child’s maturity to avoid traumatic situations. For example, it is not advisable to take off the pacifier while trying to stop using a diaper. The common thing is that from that moment on, the children themselves ask for a pacifier at certain times.
- Anyway, you should consider that in children the need for suction disappears when they reach 4 years of age. From that age on, they won’t suffer even if they don’t have a pacifier.
It is advisable to take note of these advices, as they are the best ways to avoid problems related to pacifier overuse. Prolonging your use will make the time to stop using a pacifier more difficult.
