Ever since I have known about babies and what needed to be done to take care of them, the baby nipple was a trusted friend.
Whether I was taking care of my younger brother and sister or I was rocking in my arms a friend’s baby, the baby nipple was there to comfort and calm the baby’s crying.
As I became a mom, I heard a multitude of stories about the good old baby nipples advertised and published in all baby magazines meant to scare the new mothers from using this wonder. There was talk about hygiene, teeth problem, breast feeding problem …etcetera.
Some parents prefer to let their young one suck on their fingers, others dread this habit so …who is right and who is wrong …nobody can say for sure.
My pediatrician told me when I had my first baby that if I would teach him take the baby nipple, my son won’t learn to suck correctly during breast feeding.
This was bound to happen because, although very similar, the movement of the tongue is very different from one process to another. This can confuse the baby and create problems for the lactation process of the mother’s breasts. In conclusion if I were to let my son take the baby nipple very soon, the breast feeding wouldn’t last very long.
I must say the doctor was right because I saw one of my girlfriends regretting she gave the baby nipple too soon to her little one exactly because the same reason.
Indeed after a while I saw my little one reaching for his finger and I was pretty much panicking because I knew so many desperate parents who went through hell trying to break that nasty habit at 4 and 5 year olds.
So I gave up… I have bought a few silicon baby nipples and used them. My baby stopped crying but also the breast feeding went on without any problem.
It is true that I have resourced to the silicon nipple when my baby was six weeks old so I guess by that time he had learned the correct sucking method for breast feeding, as the doctor told me.
The important part was that somehow because of some kind of divine inspiration I picked a silicon nipple my baby accepted immediately. I believe the form was important because somehow the preference for a certain form is different from baby to baby.
I was following the directions for the usage of the baby nipple very carefully. So since I never left home without at least two in my baby bag, I never had problems with the nipple getting dirty or with my baby getting saliva diseases because of the nipple.
I was also very careful to sanitize the silicon nipples before putting them to use. As a conclusion, all new mothers should know that baby nipples are useful, especially when you need to calm a new born, when teething and especially during nighttime. If you clean very carefully the baby nipple and replace it when it presents signs of cracking everything will be fine.
When given at the proper time to be introduced in the baby’s habit, the baby nipple doesn’t intervene with the breast feeding and also comes as a great help in calming our babies.
