Breastfeeders - did you use a dummy?

[TheScience]

And if you did, how old was your baby when you introduced it?

DD had one from about 4 weeks. One day we couldn't find it, she's never been bothered since!

No, never used a dummy - I just don't like them (personal opinion) so would never have given a dummy under any circumstances.

DS1 had colic for the first 3 months, he took a lot of comforting (which was bloody hard work) but he could be comforted (even if it meant jogging round the room with him for 2-3 hours a night) and he did feed hourly during the day for the first 4 months, but I was on maternity leave so had nothing better to do with my time really, so didn't mind :-D

I think it's a bit of a polarised issue - you're either for them or not.

Yes with DD at around five weeks - it was a big factor in me continuing to bf her. Fed her until 15 months and got rid of the dummy at just over 2 years (I was told after 2 they start to affect teeth). DS wouldn't take one. We were gutted at the time as it was brilliant with DD but he just seems to be able to self settle better than she could. I think it depends on the baby. Prefer to think of them as pacifiers as that's what they do!

I spoke to a dentist about dummies (dhs family have terrible teeth!) and she said not to worry unless they still had a dummy when their adult teeth were coming through but you had bigger issues than that if it was the case ds liked a big fat cherry dummy!

Yes from about 3 weeks as she was comfort feeding and with a toddler twas a bit hard. She gave it up 2 days before her 4th birthday has perfect teeth and is bilingual.....

dd1- yes 6 weeks. It was a lifesaver.
Ds1- no, but not for want of trying. He wasn't interested, and so I had to feed him every two hours day and night for ten months.
Dd2- no, again not for want of trying. She was born without a suck or gag reflex, and SCBU were trying to train her to suck using a dummy. Her suck did eventually develop, (not with the dummy) but was so weak it exhausted her, and so we had to conserve her energy for actual feeding so that she could grow. Pretty grim.

It's interesting to hear the dentists views, as my ds had a dummy until about 2 and every time he goes to the dentist she goes on and on about how he has an overbite which must have been caused by having a dummy.
Dd 6 months doesn't have one, has refused one from day 1.

Yes about 3 months as he started to suck at his fingers. I figured it might get him to stop feeding and start sleeping- no chance. He wasn't very keen at first but he cut his first tooth at 4 months and he really loved it when he was teething. His
teeth are fine.

I'm a bit about dentist's views on things like dummies, thumb sucking and breastfeeding at night etc. It seems to me that most of them seem to operate on "this sounds logical so it must be true", I've never seen any actual research that says any of these things are harmful.

In this area, obv. I know dentists train for years and are obviously experts on teeth in general, but I am just a bit cynical on this particular issue.

Yes, I introduced it at about 4 weeks after swearing that I wouldn't! My DD just wouldn't sleep without sucking and as I had to breastfeed through quite a lot of pain feeding to sleep wasn't really an option. We only used it for sleep and dumped it at 8 months when she got a bad cold and couldn't breathe and suck.