Dummies, pacifiers, and substitutes

Mothers sometimes sight about feeling a dummy/pacifier when their little one wants to breastfeed over and over again, even he ‘’can’t be hungry’’. Of course, this is the world turned around: it is the dummy that is the substitute, not the mother. The pacifier is the soother (in earlier ages literally when dipped in sugar water or liquor) if mom herself is not available. Breastfeeding experts and the WHO discourage the use of pacifiers/dummies in breastfed children, because these devices limit the tme spend at breast and could negatively influence breastfeeding exclusivity and duration. Expert from other fields point out that dummies pose other risks as well (increased risk of abnormal dental development abnormal breathing patterns and difficulties in speech development). Yet other experts feel strongly that dummies are a powerful tool in the war on SIDS (however, in this use they are a substitute for breastfeeding as well). Al kinds of research is performed to sort out for once and always if all those claims pro or con pacifiers and their impact on breastfeeding are true or false. And, as expected, this fails completely, because all studies keep each other quite leveled. Some things just can not be proven not denied the Golden Scientific Truth way (prospective, double-blinded, randomized trial). And why would one even want to proof that the original is superior to the substitute? No matter how many George Clooneys are lined up, coffe-substitutes never will taste ike freshly brewed. Not even with all Nestle’s superb marketing tricks.
Lindsten, Rune; Larsson, Erik: Pacifier-sucking and Breast-feeding: A comparison between the 1960s and the 1990s. Journal of Dentistry for Children, 2009, 76(3):199-203(5)
O’Connor NR, Tanabe KO, Siadaty MS, Fern R. Hauck FR: Pacifiers and Breastfeeding; A Systematic Review. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(4):378-382.
Karabulut E, Yalçin SS, Ozdemir-Geyik P, Karaağaoğlu E.: Effect of pacifier use on exclusive and any breastfeeding: a meta-analysis. Turk J Pediatr. 2009 Jan-Feb;51(1):35-43.