pacifier advice needed please

[KnockedUpMell]

My DS is 6w now and EBF. I never intended to use pacifier initially but this weekend we tried taking him out in the car and he screamed his head off and we needed to pull over 3 times in the space of 20 mins to comfort him. I then decided to get a pacifier for emergency use, when we are not able to comfort him. This includes times when he is overtired and wants to comfort suck but refuses the breast (it upsets him even more when I put him on the breast and he just wants to comfort suck). My mum is a strong advocate of pacifier use, and I just wanted to hear some other opinions on using the pacifier for bedtime / naptimes. At the moment he will sleep well is he's in bed with us, on his tummy, but if he's on his back or in his hammock, he is restless and wakes frequently. I am happy to co-sleep but am not happy about him sleeping on his tummy (we caved in since we were not getting any sleep, and that was the only way he would sleep). Please tell me why I should / should not use the pacifier for bedtimes as well as for emergencies / times when the boob just will not do.

I was really sure I wasn't going to use a dummy for DD1 - she was ebf as well but caved in at around 5 weeks because she was a screamer in the car or when we were out and about, and took some settling at naps too. Felt really bad but it ended up being the right thing for her. It didn't interfere with the bf latch at all. In fact, took her to an osteopath around that time too and she said dummy use was good for some sucky bf babies and not to worry. In the end she used dummy until just before 6 months and never woke up in the night looking for it as I used to remove dummy just as she dropped off to sleep but before she was completely out. When we took dummy away she didn't even worry or fuss about it being gone.

Hope this helps :)

Hi I breastfed my son for first 4 months and also used dummy, there was no nipple confusion and he is now 10 months and only has dummy to go to sleep for naps and at bedtime. I am a big dummy fan :-))) My daughter (now 15) had dummy from birth too, by 12 months only had it at nighttime and at 18 months she threw it in the bin!

I didn't use a dummy with DS1 - at 4 months he found his thumb, and is still a big thumb sucker now - there's no way on earth I have found to get him to stop.

DS2 (10 weeks, ebf) has a dummy, and has used it at bedtime from week 2 when it became obvious to us that he was as sucky a baby as his brother - I hope that using the dummy will discourage him from sucking his thumb - at least you can take a dummy away!