Why Giving Your Baby A Bottle Or Pacifier At An Early Stage Harms The Success Of Breastfeeding





When you give your baby a pacifier or bottle-feed him at an early stage; with the purpose of resting your aching nipples from your child’s sucking; you will notice that he tends to feed less compared to when you did not give him any artificial nipples.





The longer you place those artificial nipples in their mouths, the more they adapt with the kind of texture and a different mechanism of sucking - this will lead to a more challenging approach when feeding them again with your breast milk.

What You Need To Consider Before Giving Them Artificial Nipples

Are you trying to hold them off from feeding too fast?


Some mothers practice a 2-hour gap between feeding because they believe that this keeps the baby’s weight in line and their nipples from hurting. Most doctors would not agree with this. If your baby wants to feed, then let them. There is no reason for you to hold them off because a child’s appetite is not restricted compared to when the child is already eating solid foods. However, if you feel like your nipples are falling off, then you can try to use a pacifier or bottle considering that your baby is in the right age.


Do you want to wean him early?


Research shows that a baby given artificial nipple tends to give up on breastfeeding in totality at a very early stage; especially when you expose the baby to solid foods. If for some reason you want to wean him early then you can use consistently use pacifiers or bottles so that he can adapt to sucking in them.


Are you trying to get pregnant again?


When you breastfeed, you prolong your ovulation and the chances of getting pregnant. If you and your husband decide to have another baby, then you should probably stop breastfeeding at all.


If you do not have any valid reason at all to change the feeding mechanism or your child and you do not want to disrupt the baby’s breastfeeding, then you should not give any artificial nipples to start with to avoid any compromise - this is to establish successful breastfeeding.

Health Cons Of Using Artificial Nipples

Do you know that pacifiers are more prone to infectious agents? Studies have shown that oral yeasts are very common to babies using pacifiers. There is also a high incidence rate for ear infection. An allergic reaction is also possible because some babies may not be immune to the use of latex which is the material commonly used to make nipples.


Infections are just a part of the whole dilemma. The baby is also prone to choking when using artificial nipples. When the latex breaks, your child will be endangered from the excessive milk flow which they can barely keep up with in early stages of their lives. Finally, teeth misalignment is also very common for babies who gave up breastfeeding at an early stage.