The new rolling ILX parenting thread, since the other one was getting unwieldy

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I have TWO kids, people, this is srsly positively freaking me out! :-)

Oh yes, let's do a debate on pacifiers. Tips, hints, opinions are MORE than welcome. Ophelia didn't like it, she sucked her thumb but a few months ago she discovered the pacifiers (thanks to the crèche). Now I really want Elisabeth to NOT discover her thumb. The midwives are vehemently against introducing pacifiers this early on as they can mix up the pacifier and breast. (Sucking a nipple is harder and different than sucking on a pacifier for example.) But she's already noticed she has a thumb so I really want to avoid that.

How 'bout ILX Parenting 3: Back In (Potty) Training?

I love this title!

Nath, I think it's really hard to persuade a newborn not to suck their thumb if they really want to.

Aidan didn't suck his thumb from birth (he's discovered it now, but only when his dummy falls out and he still hasn't really got the hang of it) and we didn't give him a dummy until he was about three weeks old. I wasn't going to use one, but got sick of being a human dummy so decided to throw my unrealistic principles out the window. At three weeks it didn't make a jot of difference to the breast feeding for us.

I know quite a few people who have given their babies dummies earlier than this and not had any problems - one of my best friends gave her daughter a dummy when they were still in the hospital, much to the disgust of the midwives, and she successfully breastfed for a year.

Here's an anti-pacifier and breastfeeding article though, from Kellymom, which does have some fantastic advice for breastfeeding mothers what should I know about giving my breastfed baby a pacifier

nathalie, great pictures of your gals. that's a superfine moment of sisterly love to look back on, awww.

ava got hooked on the dummy relatively late. she used to suck on our pinky fingers as a newborn and never was much of a thumb-sucker. but when she started howling on a regular basis at night, we tried the dummy again and it worked a charm, hurrah! it worked too well - heaven forbid I'd be out shopping and without a dummy if she needed to sleep, it would cause a total meltdown. recently we decided she had to kick the dummy habit, mainly because she'd come to bed with us in the middle of the night, get under the covers and then start bellowing for her dummy. if I I couldn't find one withing reaching distance I'd mumble, "you left it in your bed, just go get it." "no, mummy, YOU GET IT!" the 3am battle of wills and the eventual trek to the next room to root around for it in her covers was causing too much sleepus interruptus. I'd wake up cranky and unable to cope every morning, every little thing would wind me up.

so not long ago we told ava that the dummy fairy was going to come that weekend, and if she left them all in a bag under her pillow the dummy fairy would bring her a present. she left her bed and crawled in with us at 3am as per usual, we put the bag o' dummies under her pillow and the next morning she had a brand new set of flannel peppa pig jammies. everybody was a winner! it really surprised me how absolutely okay she was with this arrangement. it probably helps that lulu hasn't taken to the dummy, so ava's not been reminded of them.

so that's my tip for getting the babe off the pacifier when the time comes. as far as thumb-sucking goes, I don't personally have a problem with it. but I'm a kind of keep-the-peace parent. I'd rather have lulu suck her thumb than start screeching in the middle of the night when she wakes up, because we don't live in a detached house and it's not just our sleep being disrupted if the girls are screaming like they've been branded. I reckon if lulu starts sucking her thumb she probably won't still be sucking it when she's in high school.

this is the same reasoning by which we decided ava could come to bed with us if she woke up in the night even though my fave midwife said basically "mary mother of god don't do it, you'll never get her out of your bed ever". but crying it out didn't work for us, what can you do? now that we're keeping the peace, everybody's sleeping more and I really feel like I'm a better, happier parent during those oft-demanding daytime hours.

midwife sue may have the last laugh when ava's 18 and still sleeping with us and lulu's wearing braces on her teeth from 16 years of sucking her thumb but for now we're going with it!

that pic of O and E - OMG!!! Breaks heart.

Beats is a bedtime thumbsucker. I was so pro pacifier but she just never liked them so we gave up offering.

My niece was a pacifier kid and so sneaky with it. They tried to phase them out by just taking obne away at a time but the problem was she would appear with another one only a few minutes later. Apparently she had them hidden all over the house. In the end they took her to NYC at xmas with all of her pacificers and told her that she should give them to santa so he could give them out to new babies who needed them on his christmas eve present route. So they went to macy's and did just that.

Ive also heard of people tying them to balloons and getting the kid to let the balloon go. symbolic gesture, i guess.

How 'bout ILX Parenting 3: Back In (Potty) Training?

i third this

Done.

Ive also heard of people tying them to balloons and getting the kid to let the balloon go. symbolic gesture, i guess.

It must be interesting when they finally have toput a pet to sleep.

Things my baby seems to enjoy listening to:

- dub reggae
- the Beach Boys

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lookin suspicious

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unlesss anyone objects it looks like this is quickly going to turn into the "pictures of Shakey Mo's daughter" thread

aw! What's her name?

Veronica Rose (altho Ronnie is also acceptable, and Ronnie Rose also okay if she ever goes into full-on Southern Rawk mode)

Cuet bebeh!

Aw!

We did have a part 3 parenting thread but it's become a bit neglected of late...

Here's the new thread.

Good name - it was my grandmother's and is also my confirmation name.

effective parenting.

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useful guidance.