An issue that is very important in child development is their Speech and Language Skills and when it’s time to remove the pacifier. Pacifier use and its effects on speech and language skills is a topic that is highly debated. When is the best time to remove a pacifier? Prolonged pacifier use and thumb sucking has been linked to dental problems and increased middle ear infections after age one. The American Dental Association reported that pacifier use in 3- to 5-year-old children led to anterior open bite, posterior cross bite, mean over jet, and smaller intercanine distance of the upper arch. While a pacifier is important for soothing it becomes a hindrance when it’s time for a child to develop speech. Imitation and babbling can be prevented if the child constantly has a pacifier. This is an important issue when beginning to articulate speech sounds. Dentition determines placement for some sounds and will come out disordered if not produced in the correct place. I am always encouraging parents to explore other options besides a pacifier. If a child MUST have a pacifier it is helpful to limit the amount of time that they use it. In reading several blogs there are many different opinions about this topic. Parents are desperate to calm their child and they automatically resort to a pacifier. Being more aware of the long term effects a pacifier has may encourage parents to remove it in order to prevent future speech problems.
Other Blogs related to Pacifier use:
Thank you Kara for your post. In the same article the authors state out of the 15,000 malocclusions from one dental clinic they estimate 60% were caused by prolonged use of pacifiers. What I found interesting was on several webpages and blogs they say pacifiers used after breastfeeding is established (about 1 month) and if not replaced if spit out and babies placed on backs to sleep that pacifiers can help prevent SIDS. They said it helped babies rouse themselves from too deep sleep. They also mention that pacifier usage itself should be limited and the time used daily limited because they mention the same statistics that if overused and for a prolonged time pacifiers will cause dental problems and delay speech development. Thank you! Cissy
ReplyDeletehttp://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/news/20051208/pacifiers-may-protect-babies-from-sids
What an interesting topic Kara! This is a topic I honestly never thought much about but I can see the potential difficulties as a result of pacifiers. I personally had a pacifier until age 4 and didn't have any difficulties but that is only one case among many. Research suggests that pacifier use, bottle feeding, and finger sucking are each associated with speech difficulties in preschool children. (Barbosa, et al., 2009) Clearly there are possible problems with using these methods of comfort for any length of time. The article I read suggested breast feeding for a longer duration of time and restricting the use of the pacifier. (Barbosa, 2009) I think that parents need to be aware of the potential problems associated with the extended use of a pacifier and how to appropriately provide support for their child without its use. This is another example of the importance of educating the parents to help them provide appropriate accommodations for their children. This information needs to be provided in early developmental stages, well before preschool. Most likely the community will need to provide information for families in order to help them prevent such problems when the children go to school. Thank you for sharing this important topic!
ReplyDeleteRandi Nash
Reference:
Barbosa, C., Vasquez, S., Parada, M. A., Gonzalez, J. C. V., Jackson, C., Yanez, N. D., . . . Fitzpatrick, A. L. (2009). The relationship of bottle feeding and other sucking behaviors with speech disorder in patagonian preschoolers. BMC Pediatrics, 9, 66. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2431-9-66
Thank you all so much for your posts! We must educate parents on this issue so that they understand the importance of removing a pacifier to decrease the chance of oral motor issues in speech!
ReplyDeleteKara you should also investigate the ideology of children developing attachments after 6 months of age. We removed the pacifier from each of our three children at age 6 months for that very reason...and replaced it with a stuffed animal which has remained each of their favorite "lovies". Now my last child, Lena, decided to suck her thumb once the pacifier was removed and she is the only one out of the three with an over-bite. All three were early talkers with excellent and early-developing speech patterns. We definitely need more specific research in this area.
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