THE IMPACT OF PROLONGED PACIFIER AND BOTTLE USE
We all want what’s best for our child’s health and well-being. However, some seemingly harmless habits, like pacifier and bottle use, can have significant long-term consequences when continued beyond a certain age. Let’s examine the potential risks of letting your child use pacifiers and bottles for an extended period of time.
HOW DOES PROLONGED BOTTLE & PACIFIER USE IMPACT MY CHILD’S SPEECH?
Teeth Impacted: Prolonged use of a pacifier or bottle causes an open jaw as the teeth have to shape themselves around the space that these items occupy. An open jaw makes it harder to produce certain speech sounds. Also, when your child has a pacifier in their mouth they cannot babble, which is an important milestone.
Palate Impacted: Prolonged use of a pacifier or bottle causes temporary or even permanent palate malformation. This can result in a lack of sensation on the roof the mouth. A lack of feeling on the roof of the mouth can lead to speech difficulties as there are several speech sounds that are produced on the palate.
Ears Impacted: Prolonged use of a pacifier or bottle cause an increased chance of ear infections. Recurring ear infections at a young age impacts your child’s ability to hear speech sounds clearly or tell the difference between speech sounds. Frequent ear infections could ultimately lead to speech delays.
BYE-BYE BINKI
A child should be weaned off the pacifier at six to twelve months of age. Provide your child with a replacement item such as a comforting toy or blanket. You can gradually give your child smaller and smaller sizes of pacifiers until it’s no longer satisfying for them. Allow your child to only use the pacifier when they are sitting down and not when walking around. This makes the use of a pacifier completely undesirable.
BYE-BYE BOTTLE
A child should be weaned off the bottle at nine to twelve months of age. Do not allow your child to sleep with a bottle in their mouth. Also, do not rely on sippy cups as a substitution for the bottle. The nipple on a sippy cup is just as harming to your child as a bottle. A safe alternative is an open cup with a straw. You can cut the straw down a quarter of an inch periodically. This provides your child with less and less of an object to suck on. Eventually, there will be no more straw left and your child will be drinking from an open cup.
STAY STRONG!
I want to set your mind at rest by letting you know you did nothing wrong by having your child use a pacifier or bottle beyond a certain age. Bottles and pacifiers have their uses in early life. It’s when your child uses these items for too long that problems will start to arise. Your child will really dislike giving up the pacifier or bottle. Keep reminding yourself the longer your child continues to use these items, the more it will negatively impact the development of their mouth, their overall health, and their speech progress. Nip these bad habits in the bud immediately. Your child will greatly benefit! I encourage you to seek a well-trained Speech-Language Pathologist who can provide guidance and strategies to assist with pacifier and bottle weaning.
