Why do parents think it is OK?

Question

Why does it seem that parents think it is bad to have a bottle after the age of 1 but it is ok to have a dummy/soother?

My dentist said a dummy/soother will damage teeth a lot more than a bottle ever will.

My step niece is 3 years old and still has a dummy. But her mum seems proud of the fact that she no longer has a bottle (got off them a month ago)

Her speech is terrible and she dribbles loads. She has never seen a dentist.

My daughter is 2 and she had a dummy till she was 6 months old then we stopped it. She still has the occassional bottle but with only milk in it. Her speech is great and she has great teeth

What are other parents opinions?

Answer 1

A day after my daughter turned one, I threw all her bottles and pacifiers in the trash and gave her a sippy cup.  

Answer 2

Some babies are easier to soothe than others, both of mine had a dummy, my 14 month old still has one, just because your child was easily settled you shouldn't assume others are as easy. Plus you can get orthodontic teats

Answer 3

It will cause them to have bucked teeth. I know that sounds crazy but I have a few friends that still have there baby on the bottle after a year and thry have said that their kids teeth and starting to buck. My granny was giving my daughter a bottle after is was  year and I just dont think that is right. They are getting into another stage of their life and you need to make her think that she is big girl and dont have to have that anymore...

Answer 4

well some parents who still let their children have pacifiers think that they should get their children off of bottles so they can learn to drink from sippy cups and then regular cups - to help with the motor skills and such.  Thats one reason to, but its really mainly because of their teeth.

Answer 5

All 3 of my children had bottles over the age of 1 but none of them have ever had a dummy. I personally don't like them but I can understand why other mums use them.

My mum gave me a dummy and there are picture of me at 4 and 5 with the thing in my mouth. It looks terrible this I probably why I never wanted to give my kids dummies.

Answer 6

My children never had pacifiers (sorry, soother or dummy sounds silly)... and I don't see anything wrong with a bottle of milk or juice after 1. They are just drinking and with a sippie cup, they still have something in their mouth only it's hard plastic, not soft rubber, so to me, a bottle is less damagin than a sippie cup.

Pacifiers are something that only under certain circumstances should a baby have. It's just another addiction and personally I don't want my children depending on them and throwing fits if they are 2 and don't have their "binky" for comfort.

Answer 7

neither after one....or close to. my daughter stopped the binkie at around 7-8 months and the bottle ended after one

Answer 8

I don't like pacifiers because I have witnessed too many parents that are slaves to madly running around trying to find it ha ha!  My kids carried blankets, two of them sucked their thumbs.  My middle son had issues with wanting the bottle and was a late potty trainer.  Two are grown, one is 14.  They all are not on any of those things any more, somehow it all works itself out.   I think it is nice when we get a ton of information, take what we need, leave the rest, and respect others.  I hate pissing matches with concerned passersby, preschool parent snobs, and family ha ha.

Answer 9

I think the pacifier (or the dummy) is just as bad as the bottle and I really don't get why parents are so proud their kid is off the bottle when they are still sucking away on the pacifier! I just don't get it! Yeah, I've seen 3 and even a few 4 year olds with them and they are just like your step-niece - drooling and with terrible speech!

Strange . . .

Answer 10

In my opinion, it's much more important to get my children off the bottle first because it can lead to a condition called Baby Bottle Mouth.

When a child is put to bed with a bottle and left to suckle at will as they sleep, they can forget to swallow and have milk (which contains tooth decaying sugars) to pool in their mouth, which cases tooth decay and cavities.  Therefore, it is important to discontinue the use of bottles as early in a child's life as possible.

Soothers can be linked to this issue as well, however, not as prevalently.  There are a number of GREAT soother options out there, many of which are approved by orthodontists.  

Also, it's sometimes better to let the child have this comfort a little longer, so that they will not resort to thumb sucking.  You CAN take away the soother when the time is right, you CAN NOT take away their fingers.

Answer 11

I assume that a "dummy" is a pacifier. Well, It is my strong belief that  a child should be weaned from both the pacifier and bottle by the age of 1...NO EXCUSES OR EXCEPTIONS.

Answer 12

i know they don't like bottle feeding after a certain age because the sugar in the formula and regular milk can sit on the gum line and rot the teeth. this is for people who "prop the bottle" and let it sit when the childs asleep. i took my kids off the bottle about 15 months of age and gave them the sippy cup. they can suck what they want out, becuase it isn't anipple that continuously leaks. and i always took a washrag to their gums at least once a day. (per the dentist)  i dealt with bottle rot in all 3 of some children that i cared for for a ling time. horrible, problems with their teeth. so i am a little freaky about it now.

th aap states that a suckie is fine unless your child has it in their mouth 24/7 and they need to "talk around it" when they express thier wants and needs. if it is in there all the time, it can cause the teeth to grow outward, but that is for kids that have it in their mouth clear up until 3-4 years of age. thats a little too long. it has been shown to have a slight decrease in sids for children that suck on pacifiers becuase it naturally gets them to move their mouth in the sucking motion, while sleeping, which in turn wakes them to breathe.

my personal opinion 3 years old is too old for a bottle definitely and way too old for a suckie.  

Answer 13

Realistically baby bottle rot is one of the worst things a small child can suffer. My eldest child has epilepsy. As a toddler she had to have 8 teeth removed due to rot from her seizures. An additional 4 teeth had to be capped. Using a bottle with juice or liquid causes that rot the same as a seizure. A pacifier/dummy does not. I cringe when i see children over 18 months with a bottle. I would far rather see a child with a dummy then know the problems associated with rotten teeth because of a bottle.

Answer 14

my son is 2 has great speech and got off his pacifier when he was 15months my niece is 3 1/2 never used a pacifier and got off of the bottle when she was 1 and has more slurred language than my two year old i think it has to do with the fact that we speak more to our  two year old and we give  him visuals and have him repeat what we say some children vary my son only used his pacifier to sleep we would not use it during the day but when it becomes a problem with speech it shows that maybe they shouldve started weening her from it

and pacifiers to cause speech development problems but there are good things that pacifiers help with they help reduce the possibility of (SIDS) check out wikipedia for more answers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacifiers

Answer 15

My sister had a dummy until she was 6!  That creeped me out, both my son and daughter stopped having a dummy at 3 months old, my son stopped bottles at a year old and my daughter, who's 9 months old is being moved onto sippy cups.

Answer 16

my daughter never used a pacifier she didn't like it. but we stopped with the bottle at the age of 2 her teeth are good and so is her speech. she is 3 now and she doesn't even use a sippy cup anymore. I have seen kids who are my daughter's age and older still sucking a pacifier and it makes me so mad. I guess they don't think it's a problem.

Answer 17

Who said it’s okay? Even as a parent, sometimes you know things aren’t okay, but the “easy” route is to just let them have it a few more days.

My son was broken of his bottle at 11 months old. He broke with ZERO issues! I mean, it was perfect and we were LUCKY!

Now he’s always had the pacifier. He was using me as a pacifier (when I nursed) and I caved and got him a binky.  When he started his daycare, they didn’t allow binky’s in the 1 yr old room. He had no problems breaking of it. We did pretty well and kept it to “nap/bedtime only”. It went well, but my husband caved because he couldn’t handle the tantrums. So we’re back to the binky again….

We’ve now gotten it to bedtime only where the binky doesn’t come out of his room at all. We were doing great…until my husband caved.

Sometimes it’s not all that easy. Is it the child that has the problem? Or the parents that have the problem?

In my case, it’s my husband with the problem. My son’s teeth are fine. You’ll get tons of stories and reports from all sorts of dentists or doctors. I was told the teeth aren’t affected (in regards to speech) until age 4-5. Obviously you heard differently. And someone else probably heard differently.

My son isn’t ready to be broken of his binky. But when he can ask for it, can look for it, and knows that Mommy doesn’t like it….he’s too old for the binky. Now I just have to inform my husband of this and well, that’s where MY problem lies.

Answer 18

I think they should be off the bottle at about a year.  I never gave my daughter a dummy.  

Answer 19

i gave my daughter a bottle at bedtime and dummy till about 2 months ago, shes 3 1/2 i dont see anything wrong with it, the only reason i stopped the milk  bottle at bed time is cos im trying to get her dry at night.

shes got perfect speech and teeth

Answer 20

my mom didnt let me have a pacey at all lol she didnt want my teeth to be screwed

Answer 21

I don't think there is any need for dummies unless the baby is a particularly difficult one.

I never used one once for my three and they all survived Lol!

Neither of them had a bottle either though, so I can't really comment.

Answer 22

How can a dummy/soother damage teeth when the children/babies using them will only have milk teeth and they fall out anyway? Up to a certain age children need soothers and it is perfectly natural. Being proud of a 2 year old having "great teeth" and worrying that a 3 year old doesn't is just pathetic because they will all fall out anyway. Let children be children and stop worrying about appearances and attractiveness, there is enough time for them to be judged for their appearances later in life and they don’t need their parents doing it!

Answer 23

Parents who let their kids suck on pacifiers til they are toddlers are just being lazy. They like the fact that the pacifier soothes the kids and keeps them quiet so they resist taking them away from the kid because then they will have to work with the child to find new ways to soothe and calm them down. I've seen countless parents with cranky children in public, and instead of giving them attention or talking to them they just reach in their purse and plop the "binky" in the kids mouth so he'll shut up.  

Answer 24

By age three I think they are too old to be using a bottle or a pacifier (or dummy).  My son was off both before he was 1 1/2.

I suppose these are the parents that also let the kids do what they want and make their own decisions.

What can you do?  Parenting is going by the wayside these days.

Answer 25

Well my kids didn't use a pacifier because I never introduced it to them for the fact that I did not want them to be 3yrs old and fighting with them about it...and I took my kids off a bottle at 11 months and never looked back. My daughter is now 2 and does not use a sippy cup either...she drinks with a straw or with a regular cup.

Answer 26

my daughter is nine months old and still uses a bottle and a dummy

i was h**l bent against both before i had her, but when she was three weeks old i couldn't sooth her anymore due to the fact that she had sucked my nipples raw and they bled and sent pain all over them when she fed...so much that i would scream. so i started using a dummy to sooth her because all she wanted to do all day was suckle and i couldn't take it!

i also had to stop breastfeeding a 8 weeks due to heath issues, so it was between letting her scream day and night or give her something to suck!

Many parents are concerned about the effect of a dummy on their child’s teeth and mouth. Sucking a dummy or thumb purely for the sensation is thought to be a natural act of the newborn. However, a child’s teeth and the shape of their mouth may be affected if sucking persists to SCHOOL AGE, after the eruption of adult teeth. The changes can then become permanent.

Children should be given the opportunity to stop their dummy habit (wean) spontaneously. Abrupt weaning from the dummy is not recommended, as it often leads to other negative oral habits such as finger sucking. Persist gently but firmly, with good humour. Remember that the first few days are likely to be the most difficult and it may take several attempts before the habit is completely broken.

Studies of thumb suckers show that they have a greater problem in breaking their habit than dummy suckers. One advantage of the dummy over finger sucking is that the dummy can be gently removed when the child goes to sleep. This helps establish the habit of sleeping without either dummy or thumb sucking.

As for a bottle one of main reasons for stopping a bottle around one is to help in the development of motor functions. the other main reason is in the prevention of tooth decay: Take the bottle away when the child has had enough, Use cooled, boiled water if the child needs a bottle for comfort or extra fluids, Encourage children to drink water rather than fruit juices or sweet drinks when thirsty.

IT DOES NOT CREATE 'BUCK TEETH' UNLESS IT CONTINUES AFTER THE ERUPTION OF ADULT TEETH.

Answer 27

What the h**l is a dummy soother? is that like a pacifier? If so then the pacifier and the bottle need to be stopped at the age of one.