“I have a 10 week old who suffers with trapped wind, I haven’t been giving him anything for it but I see a lot of parents using gripe water/dentinox or putting glycerine and aniseed or camomile syrup on dodies when babies are crying.
I’m reluctant to use these as I don’t really understand what’s in them and if they are harmful or good for my baby. Could you share your views?”
I think dody/soother/dummy [other household nickname can be inserted here] safety not nearly discussed enough. So, I’ll answer your question, but I think it’s a good topic to talk more about: What’s a good idea? What’s a bad idea? and yes, you guessed it: #mythbusting
Usual caveat: if you are a mammy who managed to not use a soother at any point or don’t agree with their use for any number of reasons I’ve heard, that’s absolutely fine. But no mammy-shaming in the comments.
Firstly, are soothers bad? Nope, not at all. In fact, they have some advantages:
1. Research shows that soother use does reduce the risk of SIDS. This is one reason that doctors are keen to not unnecessarily advise against their use. This is an important point. And is the reason for the rest of this post.
2. They cause fewer problems with tooth development and long-term use than thumb-sucking.
Here are your top tips for using these safely. Let’s start with the big DON’Ts:
1. Never use a soother to substitute for feeding or cuddling. If your baby is going through a phase of looking for extra feeds (bottle) or cluster-feeding (breast), still feed on demand. Don’t try to substitute sucking for feeding a hungry baby or for affection for a baby who needs reassurance/cuddles.
2. Never use a homemade soother or tie a soother around your baby/toddler’s neck for any reason. Choking is a real hazard.
3. Do not use sugar or other sweeteners on the soother, for many reasons including that it can lead to damage of erupting teeth. It’s not necessary. It is a popular practice because the sweet taste of all of these home-remedies distracts the baby for a few moments, appearing to “work”. It is a well-known phenomenon, and one used daily by baby docs and nurses around the world to quiet an infant for a few moments for procedures such as an xray without distressing or medicating the child. What about essential oils or other substances? Not a great idea. There is no regulation in Ireland about what is actually in essential oils or other alternative preparations. Many preparations include alcohol, and the old practice of rubbing whiskey on a baby’s gums [do I even need to say that is a bad idea?!] has been replaced by the really bad idea of rubbing high alcohol content alternatives [vanilla extract!] onto baby’s gums or on soothers.
4. Don’t introduce a soother to an exclusively breastfeeding newborn without guidance from your lactation consultant until breastfeeding is firmly established, unless advised otherwise. If in doubt, get expert advice for you and your baby. When my T. was an infant, he was in NICU days 3 – 6. His expert care team popped a soother in his mouth while he was in an incubator on tube feeds for comfort/reduce his stress. I was more hesitant, but took their advice. It was a good call. I really appreciated the introduction later when he had colic: it did help soothe ( along with the swaddling, white noise, constant rocking, seriously, sometimes just have to try everything, which brings us to…)
5. If soother isn’t working, try something else entirely: Is baby hungry? Bored? Tired? If child is teething, try chewing on clean, cold appropriate teether for teething [I’ve written extensively about safe teething options before.]
Best bets: Choose a one type of soother, and stick with it. Use age appropriate. Replace and clean as suggested on manufacturer’s instruction. Keep the soother clean, and for young infants, sterilise it as per manufacturer’s instructions. Always check for any sign of damage or wear before each use. Try to limit use of soother as your child ages.
When to limit your child’s use of a soother:
1. When your older child is starting to toddle and talk. A soother in their mouth all day can interfere with speech development.
2. When your child is chewing on the soother. Your child can choke on a damaged soother/ soother parts. This happened with my T. earlier than I would have liked. He was only using the soother in bed at night, but had taken to chewing them. It wasn’t safe, which let to a forced early abdication of soother use. It was a rough couple of days, but just wasn’t worth the risk of him choking on plastic fragment.
Tips for giving it up:
1. By age of 12 months, if not earlier, start restricting soother for use in bed or comfort. [Baby C. is now down to bedtime only, and has started to reject offers of it at other times – he used to love one for car rides – which is a good thing.]
2. Encourage your child to surrender soother as s/he enters toddlerhood. Make it positive experience, rather than distressing. Giving it to the fairies is a popular tradition by putting it outside on a tree before they go to bed one night. Places like Loughcrew here in Meath even have places your child can deposit their soother for the fairy babies.
0 Comments