The Best Pacifier for Children and Babies in Rubber and Silicone

The pacifier mainly reproduces the child’s innate gesture of sucking milk from the mother’s nipple. This important moment in the child’s life is not just for nourishment, but a moment that instills a feeling of tranquility, security, and protection. The pacifiers, emulating the mother’s breast, mainly calm the baby.

Many wonders if pacifier use is useful in breastfed newborns. As a rule, do not interfere with the mother’s breastfeeding. However, many pediatricians recommend using the pacifier before two or three weeks to ensure the baby feeds properly by breastfeeding.

Today, studies and research have helped develop increasingly effective orthodontic pacifiers to calm the baby and stimulate and develop its sucking capacity, even in the post-partum phase of the premature baby or in cases of babies who have difficulty attaching to the breast.

Up to what age do you use pacifiers? Pediatricians recommend using pacifiers until the first year, after which it is advisable to start limiting their use. After that, a child can safely use it up to two years of age.

Later, its use is no longer indicated because it could damage the teeth, even if most are orthodontic pacifiers designed to interfere with their growth. Some children will stop looking for it. For others, it will be more difficult to separate.

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How to choose a pacifier for children: Types and Characteristics

The best pacifiers for our baby must be made of non-toxic and resistant materials and equipped with an ergonomic shape not to damage the dental arch and comply with safety standards.

We have to choose the right one, use it correctly, and be careful to change the pacifier according to age. Let’s see the most important features of choosing the right pacifier.

• Pacifier with cherry: This type of pacifier has a small round teat that mimics the mother’s nipple shape. It is intended for newborns in the first months of life—an anatomical or drop-shaped pacifier. The anatomical pacifier is useful from six months upward. Its elongated and flattened shape adapts more easily to the baby’s palate and does not interfere with teeth formation.
• Silicone pacifier: The silicone pacifier is suitable for the first 6 months of a child’s life. The silicone is very soft and simulates the mother’s breast. It also resists high temperatures and is perfect for frequent sterilization.
• Pacifier in rubber: In rubber is very resistant but elastic. It is suitable for babies over 6 months, useful during teething as they could bite it, relieving annoyances and pains.
• Design: In addition to the teat’s shape and material, the most important part, we can consider different types. There are commercially available pacifiers equipped with a ring to attach the dummy holder to avoid losing it, which is very useful when bringing the baby outdoors in the stroller. Others have a sort of button, useful to grab the pacifier but flat enough not to disturb if the baby falls asleep with his face resting on top. Finally, others still have a quarry teat where they can insert the mother’s or dad’s finger to keep contact with the baby while falling asleep.
• Unisex or not? Some brands offer pacifiers for boys or girls in different colors and designs. The distinction is useless compared to the pacifier’s function and concerns only the outward appearance of children of a year or two who may already be sensitive to these differences, already experienced with the rest of the layette.

How to use a pacifier

The pacifier should not be used as the only tool to reassure the child, not to create a difficult addiction but to eradicate it. The pacifier is very useful for promoting sleep or calming the baby who cries but it should not be used continuously and all the time.

For example, if the child is quiet in his mother or father’s arms, it is unnecessary to use the pacifier. Moreover, after the first year of life, the child must learn to understand that he can find consolation or overcome nervousness or anxiety with other methods. In this way, the use of the pacifier will not lose its effectiveness.

In the first six months of life, it is important to sterilize the pacifier every day to protect the young child’s still delicate immune system. Just boil it in water for 5-6 minutes, or use the special pacifier sterilizers or baby bottle sterilizers that also provide the pacifier sterilization function.

It is useful in this regard to buying more than one pacifier so you always have one ready if it falls to the ground. After 6 months, subject to normal hygiene rules, frequently sterilizing the pacifier is no longer necessary. Instead, rinse it under running water. The pacifier must be changed every 2 months, even beforehand, if it shows cuts or forms a patina on the surface.

The best pacifier for children and babies

To help you choose the best pacifiers, we have selected the top 10 best pacifiers from the best brands. The prices of the pacifier are meager, in a range between $3 and $10. Some packs also contain two pieces.

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