Not all pacifiers are created equal

Before I had a baby, I thought a pacifier is a pacifier and babies would automatically like them. Boy was I wrong. Apparently you have train your baby to use a pacifier and you have to try several of them before they like one.

We started with the NUK brand since it's "recommended by orthodontist" - not really sure what that means but sounds official. Their pacifier looked funny to me though because instead of looking like a nipple, it is kind of flat. Regardless, we tried it. Isabel used it once or twice but for the most part didn't take it. We couldn't figure out if she was too young or she just didn't like pacifiers. We hoped it was not the latter.

One day a month ago, I was shopping at Safeway and came across another pacifier - Soothie (the blue one in the photo) and decided to try it. First of all, it looks a lot more like a nipple and thank goodness Isabel took to it right away. I heard some moms have to try 3 or 4 different brands before finding one that their baby likes.

Isabel does not always like it though. Sometimes she would push it out with her tongue and it happened a few days in a row a few weeks ago. I started to think wow maybe she already got tired of it. Good thing I talked to another new mom, who told me it's important to be persistent and sometimes even push the pacifier in a little because when a baby nurses, she would lick the nipple first to stimulate milk let down. Well, when she gets a pacifier, she may think it's your nipple and starts licking and if you don't know the difference, it looks like she is pushing it out with her tongue. In fact, she is just learning the difference.

Knowing that, I became more confidence in using it and happily Isabel uses it regularly now every day. It's saving us hours of fussiness. Who knew using a pacifier was such a science!

- Lei