About two months old, my baby woke me up with a pretty flashy soothing sound in the silence of the night. When I looked at her, I saw what she was doing quite vain efforts to suck any of your fingers, with both hands, while sleeping.
My first reaction was to catch her to breastfeed, "He's hungry," I thought. And so I did, but she, without interrupting sleep, a couple of suctions and deep sleep again. Suction is a reflection that calms babies, provides them with security and tranquility apart from food.
The scene was repeated a couple of nights, and also during the small shops throughout the day. All this with the lack of expertise that I comment, which meant Emma a few scratches on her nose and cheeks, because in the attempt to suck her fingers, not getting it right, it was scratched on occasion.
To all this, mainly by scratches, and when the baby was looking for the sleeping finger, let's dust off the pacifiers that come in the baskets to help the baby calm down without harming or getting nervous. But the tongue was very skilled to immediately expel that "foreign body."
As the weeks went by, the habit of sucking his finger was perfected, and at first, zas !, target in the mouth with one of the two thumbs. A quite pleasant habit, because it was soon customary to practice it also while awake, when changing the diaper, while we played (hard to laugh with your finger in your mouth? None of that!) ...
Meanwhile, the variety of pacifiers that came home was increasing: silicone, latex, different shapes, different colors ... Of course, our efforts in this regard were still quite unsuccessful, and my baby's expertise to spit them also increased.
We did not want to give up our efforts to accept the pacifier, since, once the scratches on the face were overcome, we faced wrinkled fingers and a small rash due to moisture, apart from all the unsolicited comments about the “dangers ”To eternalize the finger (I will return to this point).
And, of course, the search for information, which is better pacifier or finger? (It seems to be a pacifier, at least if the habit of the finger goes beyond the year of age). The ideal would have been neither one thing nor the other, I know some babies who grow up without a pacifier or finger (few, everything must be said), and until two months I thought Emma would be one of them.
But I immediately thought that the finger would win and that I could not choose a pacifier (because she was not going to choose it).
So the months go by, we reach six, the baby starts to try other foods, knows what the spoon is, puts any object in his mouth, keeps exploring ... and it seems that he is also interested in a pacifier in particular. There we see our "opportunity", and not without many games we get some siestecilla to do it with that pacifier and not with the finger.
We reach the seventh month, and the pacifier is gaining ground to the finger. Emma is at ease with him and the rash of the finger remits, although he still sucks his fingers for a little while (the teeth are also there already, and it is normal that he wants to bite and explore that way).
They say that many babies usually leave their finger spontaneously towards the age of one year, or when their teeth come out, but my baby doesn't really seem to lead that way, and I already thought that, between pacifier and finger, I could not choose, but she had already made her blunt choice.
Finally, it seems that we have achieved a small “triumph”, and the pacifier accompanies Emma to calm down. Luckily he does not need it continuously when he sleeps, if he falls he does not claim it. And while she is awake she hardly carries it.
But the triumph is only apparent, because we know that, sooner or later, she too will have to leave the pacifier, and that transition will not be easy either. Then I will say to myself, “I insisted so much that I accept it and now it is I who take it away”… We always think that we do not do it well.
Photos | Flickr CC - c r z and Flickr CC - ff137
In Babies and more | Guide to the proper use of the pacifier, Does the pacifier generate tranquility or dependence ?, Is the pacifier needed ?, When a pacifier is removed
