by Gabrielle Anwar
One common item we don’t see with Pikler® is the pacifier, or “dummy” as it’s bluntly referred to in England.
Despite the temptation most parents or care-givers feel, when struggling to quieten their baby’s sobs, or sleeplessness, the pacifier can become an external crutch that could potentially enforce an oral fixation in later years. A knee-jerk, goto “solution” that immediately signals to baby that he isn’t free to communicate his needs by the only means he knows, crying, whining, etc. Should we be controlling this little individual’s ability and desire to convey his needs, or should we allow him his right to independent expression?
Nature, on the other hand provides baby with a self-soothing mechanism in the shape of a thumb, and contrary to popular belief it is a far less detrimental than the addictive quality of a “paci.”
Baby’s thumb mimics quite nicely the sensation and shape of the mother’s lactating nipple, and it cannot drop onto a dirty floor, get mislaid or broken, and though one might argue whether or not it is “man-made’ (!), the thumb has no carbon footprint, is free, is entirely at baby’s disposal, it is her own discovery, under her own control when and where and for how long she chooses to use it to calm and appease her, often, miraculously, since before she is even born.
