They are in almost every children’s mouth and they are sometimes considered as a magic object for parents. The pacifier is often used in many families but it still raises debates, in particular because it was much criticized by the medical field. Therefore, what are today’s knowledges about the pacifier impact? Is it really an object to banish? We will answer to those questions thanks to the Nicolas Guéguen (2019) article about the pacifier impact in the short and in the long term.
First, the author highlights the positive impacts of the pacifier, impacts which are often, for us, unknown by the general public. In fact, three main positive aspects can be linked to this little object. It appears that the pacifier could help infants to struggle against a dramatic event: the sudden infant death. Indeed, the sudden infant death appears when the organism slows down. As the pacifier stimulates the organism and more specifically the sympathetic nervous system, it could prevent the accident and reduce two to five times the death risk. Moreover, the pacifier helps infants against the pain. Effectively, the pacifier, sometimes associates with sugar, using during negative events as medical acts permits to reduce baby’s cardiac rhythm, and cries; in a word, the pain. Finally, the pacifier could help premature babies for the breastfeeding. But this argument can be counterbalanced by another one exposed later in this writing.
Second, the author (2019) exposes the negative impacts of this pacifier which, strangely, concern only boys and men. Still about the breastfeeding, it appears that the pacifier using leads to a shorter breastfeeding time and a greater use of dietary supplements. So it could be helpful for premature infants but it reduces the sucking effect. Moreover, some authors highlight the fact that the pacifier using could significantly increase the risk to become a smoker. They did a research on 261 people: forty-two percent of them had a pacifier during more than two years and became a smoker against height percent of them. That means that babies who have a pacifier are five times more likely to become a smoker. After all, it harms the emotional learning because, as children mouth stays blocked with the pacifier, they cannot imitate people. But imitation allows to understand the others and their feelings. It could have long term damages because more children have a pacifier during a long time and more they have empathic and emotional intelligence difficulties, characteristics which are really important in our daily life.
In short, we can join the author (2019) conclusion which says that pacifier, as many other things, can be good for the baby if it is used with moderation. The middle could be using the pacifier for the night during the first year of life (period which is not associated with the facial imitation) and then take it off step by step.
Vocabulary:
- Pacifier = tétine
- Sudden infant death = mort subite du nourrisson
- Breastfeeding = la tétée, donner le sein
- Dietary supplements = compléments alimentaires.
Bibliography:
Guéguen, N. (2019). Docteur tétine et mister tototte. Cerveau & psycho (113), 88-91.
Written by Anaëlle Vadon, Emma Foirest and Albane Doucet