Pacifier and Not Babbling

Hi J.
really stop and think about all of the benifits a paci has it is comforting and it also gives them the oral stimulation they need when they are little there have been many studys done that show that children who have a paci taken away to soon or are not given one at all are much more likely to smoke when they are older. my daughter talks very well and has since she was two but we let her keep her paci until she gave it up at age 5 she did have some medical issues that helped me decided to let her keep it. if it was his finger he was sucking would you be concerned then. I say dont push him to give up his paci just yet and if you are concerned about his speech have him evaluated by a speech therapist.

I have heard that if you snip the tips off the nipple, it will lose it suction and babies won't really like it as much anymore. Then, every day, throw one away, until their are no more left and your son will have gradually weaned off of them. Neither of my kids took a pacifier, so this is just what I have been told.

As far as the speech development, if your 2 year old is so advanced vocabulary wise, don't have expectations for your little one to be as advanced either.

Really, kids speak at their own pace. Even if he does develop a little more slowly... once he is 3-4 he will be caught up. Neither of my boys spoke much until after they turned two, then one day, they were speaking sentences.

My 23 month old loves his pacifiers - one in the mouth and one in each hand when he goes to sleep. I have noticed he does need it more during the day for soothing since the terrible twos have begun, but it's not a problem. He speaks in full sentences, non-stop and everyone thinks he's older because of how verbal he is. I just ask him to take his paci out if he's going to speak to me and he does. We have another one on the way in August so I'm not going to traumatize him just yet with removing it, but it will definitely come after the baby. I don't think at 10 months it's anything to stress too much about.

Child develope at their own rate and even though he may not be "babbling" as much as his sister did does not mean that he is going to have an issue. But I would strongly suggest that you start removing the pacifer from his life at this age.. I wouldn't take it away all together but remove it for short periods of time letting him slowly get used to the feeling of not having the pacifer in his mouth all the time. Yes you may have to live with a crabby child for a short while, but isn't worth it to wean him from the pacifer before he hits the 1 year mile stone. Not only should you worry about verbal skills, having a pacifer in his mouth this much could cause dental problems in the future if he continues to keep it in his mouth while getting his teeth. Remember that each child will develope at their own time frame and just because your daughter has great verbal skills that it doesn't mean that your son will. Plus boys develope their skills later in life. But get rid of the pacifer as soon as possible.

My son was a total pacifier addict. Most of the day and all night. It had no effect on his teeth or his speech. In fact, people always commented on how easy he was to understand. He was speaking a full, grammatically correct sentences by 22 months. His vocab was huge...ex. he used the word chrysalis at age 2.

He had sensory processing disorder so the pacifier was a soothing tool for him. He voluntarily gave up the pacifier around age 3, when we told him the pacifier fairy would come take his pacis and bring him gifts when he was ready. Let him keep the paci, any difference in his speech compared to his sister will be due to difference in gender and personality, not due to the paci.

A pacifier at age 10 months is not going to affect speech (yet). However, my pediatrician recommended taking the pacifier just after weaning from the breast or bottle around age 1 because they don't have the longer term memory to keep looking for it/asking about it like they do when they are older. We took our daughter's paci around 16 months and it was no big deal. She really was only using it to sleep anyway and she was over it in a day or two. My son is 23 months old and we just took his away on Friday. We have all had some medical problems over the past year (son had a serious blood disorder, I now have cancer, etc.) so it has been harder to work on these kinds of things.....I thought he needed the extra comfort. But, since I couldn't get him to just have it at naptime and bedtime (he would run into his room and cry near his crib if I tried to leave it in there), we decided it was time to just be done with it. It has not affected his speech though, even at his age. He says tons of words and even small sentences. I think, as far as speech goes, all kids are just really different. My daughter was speaking in full sentences at 17 months old, but I don't think it had anything to do with the paci. My son never babbled either at 10 months, but he walked at 9 months old, so his pediatrician said he was using all of his energy and brain power on his motor skills, not his verbal skills. He is doing just fine now in the speech department, so it's nothing to worry about.

Bottom line, I would probably let your little one keep the paci for now and just try to use it only for sleep times (this is easier said than done, I know). At 10 months, it should only take a day or two of just leaving the paci in the bed when he gets up and it will become routine. He won't really know any different to be going and looking for it. I really wouldn't worry about the speech thing though because boys and girls especially develop at different rates in that area, so let him be a baby for a little while longer before you start worrying about him talking. :-)

My son is 22 months old and has had a pacifier since birth and has no speech development issues. He also would have it in his mouth pretty much all day, up until recently. He says 150+ words while my nephew who never had a pacifier didn't speak until he was 3 1/2 years old. I really don't think the pacifier has anything to do with speech development, I think it has more to do with the individual child.

I always liked giving the pacifier because I knew eventually I could take it away. I didn't like the idea of taking it away before they were ready to get rid of it because I was more scared that they would start sucking on thumbs and that you cannot take away. My now pacifier free 3 year old was also very addicted to her pacifier just up until this past Christmas (or just after actually) Her vocabulary is just fine, actually very good especially seeming she is learning 2 languages at the same time. I'm not saying this to brag or anything I just think that their want to talk has nothing to do with a pacifier. Now it may have something to do with how they speak, but if he is not interesting in talking he may just not be ready yet. We have had friends that their child didn't really start babbling until after a year but here they are at 3½ and have a normal vocabulary for their age and he didn't have a pacifier.
I have a somewhat liberal stance when it comes to a pacifier, if they feel they need it then let them have it. It was easy to take it away from my daughter because you could explain to her that she was a big girl and didn't need it and that the pacifier fairy would take it and give it to little babies that needed them and she would get a special prize. She still talks about it and how exciting it was. Our dentist recommend that it be gone by the age of 4 so that there are no problems with their developing teeth..
When my daughter was about 1½ we did have a rule that if she needed her pacifier that she only use it while sitting down and taking it easy, that would last for a few seconds and then she would give it back and go off and play again. I know there are those out there that think that a pacifier is a terrible thing and you should get rid of it ASAP, but I say let them have their comfort for a little longer and when they are ready to give it up it will be much easier (within reason of course) to convince them of that. When your little guy does start talking just make sure he does not talk around the pacifier, tell him to take it out and talk to you because you do not understand him. Every child will develop differently when it comes to all aspects of their development and the most important thing is not to compare too much to how others are and how your first child was.. I seriously doubt it has anything to do with a pacifier.