The hardship of keeping pacifiers clean

[Flowermoon90]

Hello overyone,

I am a FTM to a 3-month-old DD. She loves her pacifiers and cannot sleep without it. I try to sterilize her pacifier in boiling water after she falls asleep and the pacifier falls off.

The problem is that she spits the pacifier out sometimes, and it sometimes touches her clothes or her blankets. Usually I rinse it with boilong water to give myself peace of mind.

Today, I washed her hands and feet with warm water in the bathroom sink. Her foot briefly touched the sink, and I washed it with warm water. Later I gave her the pacifier, and the nipple made contact with my hand for a second. I realized later that I hadn't washed my hands with soap after washing her feet which had touched the sink.

Now, is it possible for her to get sick like this? I feel worried and keep berrating myself for what happened. Had the pacifier got dirty or am I way over the top?

Can you tell me how you keep the pacifier clean and how often you sterilize?

I never sterilised it
You sound unhealthily preoccupied with this, this level of anxiety is abnormal and may be worth just checking in with a doctor to take through.

Bottles are sterilised because of the risk from the milk. It's very different

Oh crikey OP. You sound very over anxious about all this. Are you struggling with anxiety/low mood in other areas? Have you spoken with your HV about these concerns.

Just for context: I honestly don’t remember sterilising any dummies for either of my 2 DC’s. I’m sure I probably gave them a quick rinse if they fell on the ground whilst out of the house, but by and large I remember just sticking them in my mouth to clean them, before then popping them back in babies’ mouth. I’m not advocating this by the way, but just giving an example of one way of doing it. I’ve got 2 very robust, healthy, sporty pre-teen DC’s now, who were never unwell as babies.

Please do reach out to your Health Visitor about your anxieties around contamination. 💐

Have you got some support from your Doctor?

Number 1: dummies went in the Milton fluid with the bottles. Rotated so they all got sterilised before use.

Number 2: yesterday a dummy fell on the floor in a car park. I picked it up, cleaned it in my own mouth and gave it back to the baby.

Now - yes, admittedly I am a minger for the above (tbf baby was screaming bloody murder at the time) but you sound unhealthily worried about this. Please try not to stress. Speak to someone if this is on your mind all of the time. Best of luck.

Don't mean to sound rude OP but my baby is 3 months old & nearly died from Meningitis at a few days old & even I don't worry about things like this. Please seek help for your anxiety. I'm on medication & it's really helped my health anxiety.

This is OTT and could be related to health anxiety. It may have started off as just being clean and making sure things are sterilised but this is an escalation.

DS spent 2 months in NICU and that was the only time his dummies were sterilised. Once he was home I’d wash them with soapy water and that’s it. Maybe do some research on how to clean dummies and what needs to be done. Also speak with the HV/GP as you seem to be stressing unnecessarily about this

I just had loads of dummies and if one dropped on the floor and I was concerned ( ie outside in mud, down the toilet, in the dust behind the sofa), I would get a clean one from the container I kept them in. Dirty ones were washed in soapy water, rinsed and sterilised as I always had a sterile solution on the go - I had three children in three years so never got rid of the baby stuff. If it fell on a clean looking floor I might just rinse it under the tap before using it again but I had so many dummies, there was always a clean one around.

However, all my children only had dummies to help them sleep in their cot or the pushchair, they did not use them during the day when playing.

I never cleaned one in my mouth, I just did not like it but I guess if I did not have a clean one or access to water, I might have resorted to doing it.

I sterilise the dummies once a day, unless they fall on to something very dirty like a public toilet floor then they just get rinsed and go back in.

….ok here’s one way of perhaps thinking about it. If your DD is anything like my 3 month old DS then her hands are probably spending upwards of 8 hours a day in and around her mouth…..her hands will be touching sheets, clothes, playmats, toys, your skin/hair etc etc….then her hands go in her mouth. I use the same concept with my DS dummy. Unless it’s been dropped say….under the sofa, onto a floor outside or down in the footwell of the car I don’t stress…and that’s more to do with bits sticking to the dummy as opposed to actual germs.

However it does sound like your worries are quite extreme here. The foot touching the sink and needing to be washed is quite out of the ordinary as is washing the dummy after she falls asleep. I think a chat with a health professional to try and alleviate your worries is the very least that needs to be done here to keep your mental health in a good place because I don’t think the anxiety you’re experiencing over this is good in the long run.

Most mornings my babies dummy gets swapped for a clean sterilised one. She then uses that one all day, unless it falls on bathroom floor or mud etc. It will touch my hands, older sister pops in her mouth (cheekily & runs off!), it touches playmat at home & out, rests on the sofa etc etc.

A certain amount of germs are good! Baby needs to build an immune system

Hmm I sterilised dummies once a day and if they fell on the floor outside or in public I wouldnt use them again until sterilised. I think you are being a bit over the top; soon she will be putting everything in her mouth

The sink example thinking sounds like contamination OCD type thinking.

You don't need to sterilise things constantly - once a day (or thereabouts) is OK. It's OK for babies to come into contact with things in the world, especially at 3 months old, they are no longer newborn. Soon they will be mobile and then you can't (shouldn't) stop them touching things and interacting with things.

I would not clean a dummy in my mouth because I read something about parental mouth bacteria potentially contributing towards future cavities, but in general, I think the approach of "pick it up, suck/wipe/rinse the dirt off and give it back to them" is exactly right, especially after they are mobile.

When my babies were very small I did try to keep a supply of clean, sterilised dummies and swap them out, but I don't think I ever worried about it touching things like sofa, my clothing, cot sheets etc.

I also found these cute portable UV sterilisers that are perfect for sterilising pacifiers and teats when you're on-the-go. They'd surely fit in your nappy bags!