Warning to be put on dummy packaging?

[mumandsupergran]

For many years I was a special educational needs co-ordinator in a primary school as well as being a Mum to two children. I am now gran to a little girl. Research is showing a massive rise in the numbers of children reaching school with speech difficulties. There are not sufficient speech and language therapists to deal with the problem. If children arrive at school not able to speak properly their literacy development will be greatly hindered, perhaps for life. Some parents are using dummies to keep their children quiet when they should be talking to them and helping them to develop their language skills. Children learn how to make all the sounds they need to speak in their first year of life and gradually put these together to make words. A dummy stops them putting their tongue and lips in the correct position to form sounds correctly. Parents need to be warned that dummies can be harmful if used indiscriminately.There should be a health warning on dummy packaging which should state that using a dummy can seriously damage a child's speech and language development if used by a child beyond the age of one year during their waking hours. Parents can then make an informed decision about whether a dummy should or should not be used. Would any of you like to sign my epetition to ask the government to address this issue? I am not condeming anyone for using a dummy, I just want everyone to be aware of the risks. Here is the link to the petition:

Reading through other chats on Mumsnet I realize that this will be controversial but I feel very strongly about it.

OP, lots of people have added lots of information and opinions here. Just wondering what your take is and in particular if you could link to the research about dummies not allowing children to position their tongues and lips properly and causing speech delay.

I have no idea why people go so nuts over dummies. Some babies needs them, some don't, end of. Just another thing to be judge-y about for some people, I think. OP I appreciate your passion for this cause but it is not the dummy that is at fault - it is poor parenting. And I wouldn't sign as dummies reduce the risk of SIDS and provide comfort to lots of little ones at bedtime and I'm not going to take away a source of comfort from a baby!

i dont think a warning on the packaging is going to make any difference to the type of parent that lets their child use a dummy endlessly.

5 children and 2 have had dummies, ds1 had one from 4-9mths, hardly used it but it was good for long car journeys etc.

dd has had one since a few months old, she is now 20mths and still uses it, mainly just at bedtime and nap time, but sometimes in the pushchair or car. i tend not to let her walk around with it etc and mostly during the day she doesnt have it, her speech is just fine for her age :)

ds4 sucks his thumb, he is 4 now and still sucks it, at least i can take a dummy away!

MissMavis - DS2 has Hypermobility Syndrome AND Hypotonia. And Dyspraxia...

Used2bthin - my DS2 finally mastered straws at about 7.5yo.

We are currently working on trike pedals. For the last two years. And getting nowhere.

He still isn't able to brush his own teeth effectively enough to prevent cavities either, so I still have to do that for him - he will be 9yo in November.

Has dummy use increased over the years?

None of my five children had dummies (they got the real thing), but my mother kept encouraging me to use a dummy, "to give me a rest" (even though I didn't want a rest).

Are the kind of parents who use dummies inappropriately going to heed to packaging warnings?

I will certainly not be signing this rediculous and ill thought out petition. My twins were prem and were given dummmies in SCBU to help them develop the sucking reflex. I contiunued to use them when we got home because my daughter had feeding difficulties so I couldn't feed both babies at once and a dummy helped to calm whichever baby had to wait. As far as I'm concerned they were a valuable assset and I really resent those of you who consider them to be hideous and unecessary things. If you found you didn't use them fine, but don't make judgements about those of us who did.
The small minority of parents who bung a dummy in their children's mouths just to keep them quiet will sadly do so however many warnings are put on packaging.
Oh, and if we're banning unhygienic things put in babies mouths can I please start a petition banning all toys, clothes, mobile phone and keys?

Suspect parents trying to force a dummy on a child 'too much' will be the same stressed ones on their phones all the time or leaving the kid in another room or generally not modelling lots of speech - eg research recording 1000s of hours of parent-child interaction showing that kids in the 'best' homes had had a couple million more words spoken to them by the time they started school than many others.

Our dentist told me not to worry much about ds being addicted to the dummy from 18mo until 3.9 when he finally wanted to swap it, as long as it was home before milk teeth went.

He did get people telling him he couldn't speak with a dummy, and I used to laugh at their faces when he removed it and enunciated perfectly something about ichthyosaurs and triceratops. I'm deaf so he has to speak really clearly for me to understand!

mine two of mine who had dummies got the 'real thing' as well but sometimes it wasnt what they wanted and a dummy was!

should be the two of mine

Hi there
We think this is a v interesting discussion but we don't allow petitions, so we have removed the link in the OP
thanks
MNHQ

i agree with what alot of you are saying with regards to the parents that are likely to use pacifiers as a 'keep quiet' tool rather than a comforter. They're not likely to pay any notice to warnings on packaging. Both my DC had pacifiers, my DD until she was 11 months and my DS until he was 2 1/4. Both have fabulous S&L skills and have never had problems with their dental development either. I on the other hand sucked my thumb well into my teens until warned by my orthodontist to stop, i then received 3 1/2 years of treatment with 'train tracks' and then a further year with a retainer. And my DB sucked his thumb much longer than i and has quite a prominent lisp!
I think that sometimes if S&L problems are going to occur, it's going to happen dummy or no dummy. It's definitely not fair to give all us dummy users a complex about choices we make/made and whether we are being judged for it....IMOA

Well, it is also a fact that my son was first given a dummy in SCBU to help with his suck and swallow. Without it, he may never have been fed anyway but through a tube, or at least not as quickly as he did.

So I will never sign a petition banning dummies.

He is 3. He still has his dummy at sleep time and when upset. His speech is fine.

hazeyjane, do you know where there's any info on oral fixation / excess drool? Your post about your DS describes my 2.7 y.o. exactly (though he doesn't use a dummy). He's been referred to SALT for unclear diction & drool, but our paediatrician said that lots of SALTs won't treat the issue of drooling.

(Apologies for slightly off-topic post)

Agree with mumandsupergran although I can't see the link to the petition. (!) But we need to be careful of knee-jerk reactions here - read the post properly - it's about indiscriminate dummy use after 1 year. DD has never had a dummy, but that's not to say I didn't consider it in the throes of new mum desperation when she was 8 weeks or so. (I feel very lucky that I don't have the battle of taking it off her now, mind).

DD's 18 months now. We we sat next to another baby on the train the other day - roughly the same age. DD was babbling away and interacting with me, while the other baby had a dummy and clearly had something to say because she was grunting and trying to get her mum's attention. The mum didn't even take the dummy out to let her talk and just told the poor little girl to shut up! I think this is the kind of behaviour we should be worried about. It's not about dummy use per se, it's about educating mums and dads not to abuse them. If they're used for comfort that's one thing, but if they're used to simply shut the child up then I do wonder why people have kids in the first place.

Hello Angeldog, I'm afraid I don't really know of any good resources. Ds has a SALT (he is completely non verbal and has feeding issues )who has given us some advice wrt oro motor skils, but it hasn't been very helpful, we have also tried medication (skin patches) but he has a reaction to the patches. If you start a thread on the sn boards, I'm sure there will be loads of good advice.

Maybe they should be marketed as a Sleep Aid?

SIDS advice says helpful when sleeping and I hate hate hate seeing toddlers talking with their dummies in and the parents allowing it.

I hate dummies with a passion. However, when DD1 was a few weeks old and would not sleep all night every night (now know she has SN) I was pleading with her to take the dummy. She wouldn't

She has severe S&L delays - would you have blamed the dummy if I had been successful in encouraging her to take one?

MissMavis, nope, they refuse to do genetic tests on our family because my PCT are tight fisted fucks despite these problems getting more severe, and affecting at least 3/4 of each generation for at least 4 generations. But we all have different surnames, even my DD and my DS2, (DD has the same issues as DS2, to a milder degree, but also has other, more severe medical problems), so they refuse to 'connect' the cases as they would if we all shared the same surname IYSWIM.

Right now they have us all down as 'Swan' or Symptoms Without A Name!

hazey - thanks, I'd not thought of asking on the SN board. I'll do that when I get a few minutes as I've struggled to find any info about drool/non-teething chewing.

To be fair, DS's oral issues are more of an annoyance than a serious problem, though the constant hand chewing does aggravate his eczema. Our dermatologist says it's normal (as is the drool) but it seems to be getting worse rather than better.

Agree with Babydollsmum

All these links differentiate dummy use in the first 6-12 months and use after a year.

www.talkingpoint.org.uk/Parent/Speech%20and%20Language/Is%20it%20OK%20to%20use%20a%20dummy.aspx

www.leedsspeechandlanguage.co.uk/printablePages/dummy.html

www.wordsforlife.org.uk/dummies-and-talking

Thank you for those of you who signed my petition (not many!!). It will finish soon. Of course I realise that speech and language difficulties can have many causes. I also know that there hasn't been any research as far as I know. I'd love to get someone interested in carrying out a study and I know this would take many years. The difference today is that Mums, Dads etc are all working longer hours and keeping DC quiet is becoming more and more important as parents struggle to stop their overwhelming tiredness. Talking to your child requires effort and all day long can be extremely wearing. I notice this when I have my granddaughter for the day! I also know that putting a warning on dummy packaging may only reach those parents who are already concerned about language development but it would be a small thing to do and may just have some good results. I wouldn't want to ban dummies myself as I can see in some circumstances they are essential. It is just having information available for parents to make a careful decision. Life without a dummy is possible and can lead to great conversations!
MumandSupergran

I don't like how you have come on here fearmongering OP!!!