Pacifier: How It Contributes To My Son Constipation
It took us 16 months to learn this — hopefully you will in 5 min.
The pacifier — aka pinkie — was introduced to my son a few minutes after his birth. The nurse gave him his first pinkie after we cuddled and he began to cry. This happened during the critical bonding phase, so he ended up bonding more with his pinkie. Probably the nurse forgot about the AAP recommendation:
A Pacifier should be introduced no earlier than four weeks (not minutes) after birth.
In hindsight, the pacifier helped us cope in various ways. For instance, when my wife was going through postpartum depression, having a pacifier came in handy. Putting him to bed was challenging, but this magical pinkie would do the trick. It was his comforter and it seemed like nothing could break that bond — even feeding had to take a back seat.
Despite the short-term benefits, we were unaware of a few problems that were looming. By sharing my experience, I hope that you will be able to understand the potential issues and their impact on your child’s health.
Pacifier Problems
Like most parents, we did extensive research and selected some of the best pacifiers on the market. At that point, we learned about safety standards such as ASTM and different food-grade silicone. But we still had a few problems:
- Minor teeth misalignment. Our 21-month-old son has over 20 teeth in his mouth. This became a major concern for us.
- Latching became problematic. Correction… we never got him to latch on properly. The majority of his feeding came from pumped breast milk and formula.
- Difficulty knowing when your child is hungry. My wife has been doing an excellent job keeping track of his feeding time. For me, not so much.
We picked up on these challenges relatively quickly, but this one took a while.
What Happened To Our Son
When he was about 5–6 months old, we noticed he had little to no appetite. Our physician mentioned that this was normal, especially since he was teething.
Afterward, our son would have regular constipation. With each episode lasting for about 8–10 days. We believe that the pacifier was a major contributor to it.
Here is why…
It is all about the human digestive system. This process starting in the mouth and involves multiple organs. Once chewing starts, a signal is sent to the stomach notifying it of incoming food. The stomach then beings the secretion of various digestive juices (including the intestinal juice).
Constantly sucking on the pacifier triggered his digestive system regularly. During that time no food entered the stomach — a false alarm. Overtime his system will become “fatigue”, resulting in a dysfunctional digestive process which ultimately leads to constipation. At this point, his gut flora would have been imbalanced.
Our Custom Solution
Our solution involved two steps.
First, we had to wean him off his pinkie. It took a few days, but we prevailed. We then got his bowl unblocked by giving him multiple dosages of natural prune juice and magnesium-based supplements.
Next was the restoration of his digestive system. We avoided going the medical route as we were concerned about side effects. We combined a few natural products, which helped to restored not only his appetite but also his digestive system.
FYI: He still develops constipation, but it happens less frequently. Also, babies are a bit fearful to pass stool so this may contribute to it as well.
Thank you and take care until then.
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