Here is a typical street scene. Lively talking parents, and next to the child is separated from all that is happening. They hold his hands, he is safe, but not in the field of their interest. It is on its own. And although the baby is already two or even three years old, he phlegmatically sucks a nipple. His expression is, as a rule, indifferent. And, probably, very few people guess that the reason for this inhibition is at first sight in an innocuous pacifier.
Yes, the child has a need to suck. Even full, he usually continues to smack his lips. Such sucking movements soothe and relax the child, and he quickly falls asleep. This was noticed for a long time by our great-grandmothers. After all, both in the field and in production, they often had to take even newborns with them. And the child demanded attention, cried, worried, tore off his mother from work. And, in order to calm the child, she, having chewed rye bread in a rag, literally caulked the baby's mouth with it.
Nowadays, along with the dowry of a newborn, a pacifier is always bought. Beautiful, modern, it still remains in many ways a great-grandmother's "gag". After returning from the maternity hospital, barely stepping through the threshold of her apartment, the mother first of all gives the baby a pacifier. And she did not know what it might turn out to be.
First of all, in infants, who constantly keep a nipple in their mouth, the sucking reflex decreases - and it is not difficult to guess what it can lead to. By the time of the next feeding, the child, having grown tired of the continuous sucking of the pacifier, begins to be capricious, when the mother gives him a breast - she sucks for a long time and reluctantly, and can even give up the breast altogether.
Alarmed mother, rightly fearing that the child will remain hungry, immediately offers him a bottle with a pacifier - and the kid greedily begins to drink from it. Of course, because in this case the milk almost by gravity falls into his mouth! And a week or two later, the inexperienced mother will not be able to force the baby to take the breast. "I left it!" - She complains to her friends. But not himself - through her fault ...
The undesirable effect of the nipple is also manifested in the fact that when a child sucks a pacifier, he involuntarily swallows and air. Hence, frequent "uncaused" burps, bloating, intestinal colic. The constant sucking of a pacifier can ruin a child's bite.
From a hygienic point of view, the harm of the nipple can be enormous. Who among us has not watched as a mom or dad lifts a pacifier from the floor, automatically lick and mechanically put it into the mouth of a baby. What an unthinkable frivolity! Many microbes live in the human mouth, most often streptococci and staphylococci. The body of an adult is quite resistant to them, and for him they do not represent a particular danger, and in an infant these microbes can cause severe diseases. Older children often play with their nipples, put them on the floor, on the ground and again in the mouth ... And then the parents are surprised why their children often get sick.
However, the main danger of nipples lies in the possible delay of the child's mental development. The suckling reflex is dominant in the infant, because nutrition is the main guarantee of a child's life. And this reflex is so strong that it can restrain other kinds of activity of the newborn, and even to a certain extent suppress the motor activity.
The nipple distracts the child's attention from all impressions of the outside world. Do you remember the scene with which we started our conversation? Now, I think, it became clear why the sucking child is so indifferent to everything around him. But for such a child every moment of life without exaggeration is an opening. Distracting his attention to the nipple, we seem to put an invisible veil between him and the outside world ...
Every normal child has a definite vocabulary for a year, and begins to pronounce the first words. The same kids, who always have a nipple in their mouth, usually do not try to talk. If at this time not to wean the child from the nipple, then we can confidently predict that the development of speech and intelligence will be delayed.
Of course, you can not give up nipples unconditionally. If the child is nervous, easily excitable, inadequately reacts to various external stimuli - putting this child to sleep, it is permissible to give him a pacifier, with her help, you can sometimes reassure the sick child. But you should not abuse it.
It is widely believed that a child needs a pacifier, when his teeth are chopped - but it is better to use special rings for this. They help to relieve the itching in the gums, and do not cause a sucking reflex.
In general, a pacifier is sometimes allowed to calm the child. But the child is not older than a year and only in moments of extreme necessity. And after a year it is necessary to gradually wean the child from the nipple, distracting and switching his attention to other objects.