How long until she will be able to grasp her pacifier?

Question

I am not looking for opinions on if a pacifier should be used or not -- we have already decided to give her the pacifier. What I am wondering is -- because we are in the stage of having to get up at night and go give it back to her when it falls out, how long will it be before she is able to put it back herself? From what I understand, being a first time mom, is that she should start being able to grasp things in a few weeks. She is currently 10 weeks old. She uses Soothie pacifiers and they make a bigger teething pacifier that is marked for ages 3+ that I am hoping she will be able to grasp herself. Will she be able to find this bigger pacifier at night in a few weeks? or will it still take some help getting back in her mouth?

Answer 1

My son (7 months) still hasn't caught onto the pacifier thing. He'll drop it and chew on it, but he'll never suck on it for too long. So I give him those all rubber newborn pacifiers so that no matter what part he decides to put in his mouth... it will be fine.

I think he started putting it back in his mouth after dropping it about a couple months ago.

  Congrats on the baby : ) good luck!

Answer 2

Physically she should be able to put her hand on her pacifier and hold it in another few weeks.  Realistically though, I don't think that will fix your problem.  Once she learns how to grasp things she'll also start trying to pull it out, just to see what it is.  Plus, she'll have a hard time putting it back in her mouth.  It'll be easy to spit/pull out, but it's hard to figure out which end goes in her mouth and to put it there herself.  She won't be able to actually put it correctly back into her mouth for another couple of months.

Still there is a problem that will delay her even further with the ability to put it back in her mouth at night.  Chances are she just needs it in her mouth to fall asleep, not to actually sleep.  If she spits it out or it falls out of her mouth at night she then has to be able to locate it, then put it back in her mouth.  Many one year olds struggle with that as well.

Yes, she'll still need help putting it back in her mouth for a while.  One thing you can consider is to try helping her learn a different way to fall asleep.  A blanket that she can snuggle is much easier to manage by herself at night than a pacifier.

Answer 3

When she first starts grasping is normally around 2-3 months, but it's a while before she'll master getting it back into her mouth.  Probably not until 5 months, but even still my baby can only do it when he's in a good mood.

Answer 4

Lets see if memory serves me right my son was about 3 or 4 months old when he mastered this. And yes it makes things MUCH easier.  

Answer 5

My daughter didn't start grasping it til she was about 3 months old, and even then she couldn't get it back in her mouth every time. She didn't start that until about 5 months old, but she likes the Nuk pacifiers and those have a nifty little handle, she never cared for the Soothie ones.

Answer 6

If I remember right my daughter couldn't get her pacifier back in her mouth at night until around 4 months.  My son did it a little sooner, around 3 months.  You probably have a little while yet but when it happens...it will be so nice! My son is 6 months old now and he'll wake up and fuss for a second in the middle of the night, but he usually gets his pacifier back in his mouth before I can even get to him.  

Answer 7

My son is 7 months and he still doesn't put it back in his mouth in the middle of the night yet.  He only gets it in his crib and in the car, when he has it on the car he can easily put it in and out of his mouth on his own.

I think part of the problem for his is that he is not completely awake when he wakes up in the middle of the night so he can't find it.

P.S. Pacifiers reduce the risk of SIDS, so don't feel like you need to defend your decision!

Answer 8

first--ur daughter is toooo young for a blanket soothie in her crib....my dd also uses only soothies...she is almost 3 mos...she can usually catch it back with her mouth if sitting up and it falls out if she wants it, and i have noticed lately that sometimes as she is falling asleep she will reach up and put her hand over it so it doesn't fall out in the first place...she's still mastering grabbing small things, and i don't think her coordination will allow her to just pick it up somewhere and put it in for awhile...that said..they do make somewhat thicker, heavier soothie passys as well as the teether which is somewhat heavier than that..so far, both are hard for her to hold in her mouth bc of the increased weight, but she does do better with the passy than the teether one...as it will be a while before your babe will be ready to coordinate the teether, maybe go ahead and get some of the next step soothies and slowly let her get the hang of the extra weight; i wouldn't switch altogether as my dd gets frustrated when she's tired and trying to go to sleep and the heavier one falls out easier...so we are doing it in small doses frequently...and the teether covers almost the whole lower half of her face and her mouth is so small, even though she does have a tooth, the teething part doesn't fit comfortably in her mouth yet anyway; i do like the material and texture though, so maybe after she gets used to the 3+ mo passy, we will do the same getting her used to the teether....babies r us here has recently started carrying all the varieties and just a few mos ago all you could get there was the nb green ones; now they even have diff color nb ones dangit..LOL

gl