To Soother or Not to Soother... That is the Question..

Long before I gave birth to Bess I had decided that I would not use soothers. I absolutely hate seeing a 2 year old running around with a soother in their mouth. It is actually one of my pet peeves.

When I was actually pregnant with Bess and buying baby gear I decided to look into it further. I found research both in favor (some say it reduces the risk of SIDS) and against (some say there is no proof that they are needed). I also read that some children will not take them at all, while others have this need to suck all the time. We decided to buy some soothers to have just incase. Just to see how it goes. Perhaps I would change my stance on soothers.

While there have been a few (very very few) times where the soother has come in handy, I still don't like them. I think I actually hate them even more. Now, I understand that there are some babies that just need to suck and if you are breastfeeding it can be exhausting. This is the only time where I approve of a soother. Other than that I find that a soother becomes a quick fix that allows parents to shut their kids up instead of figuring out other ways to sooth their child. I have been guilty of this myself. As you can see, this is a recent picture with a soother in Bess's mouth.

The few times that we have resorted to using a soother because we were just too tired or just didn't feel like dealing with Bess it has caused problems. Mostly sleep problems. When she doesn't have a soother, she sleep through the night, no problems. However, introduce Mr. Soother and we have problems. She wakes up every time it drops out of her mouth. Should it fall out of the crib we have a huge melt down. It is a pain in the ass. Every time we go through it we always say 'never again' and we wean her from the stupid thing and all is right in the world again.

Well... we failed at keep our word once again. The last few weeks our house have been plagued with bugs. Not the insect kind, but the kind that make us sick and little children even sicker. Because we had a new born baby and a very sick 1 year old, my husband decided to give her a soother to help her relax while having a fever. It kept her content, and at the time this was a blessing as we were all exhausted. That being said... we are regretting it now.

Bess won't nap with out it.
Bess won't go to bed without it (unless we want to listen to her scream herself to exhaustion)
When we cave and give it to her at night, she wakes up multiple times and cries until we retrieve it.
If she catches a glimpse of one during the day (we try and hid them up high) she has a melt down.

We are once again trying to wean her from soothers again.....