My first daughter used a paci from birth. It was the only one of it's kind....couldn't get her to change once she had the one she liked, and couldn't find a replacement anywhere!! One day while sitting on the porch, it fell, and Nana picked it up and sucked on it and it blew up in her mouth. The paci had appearently gotten two different splits in it and the rubber from the inner part blew up into my Moms' mouth when she sucked on it. Well the babe was 6 months old, and wouldn't take anything else, so what to do? I had read somewhere that clipping a paci down little by little would help wean them of it, so I clipped it down past the bad parts and gave it to her...she never took it again, and never whined for it after that either!! I was in shock and wished I had tried it sooner, cuz she didn't really 'need' it people just liked to put it in her mouth and she liked to play with it mostly.
My second daughter wouldn't take one at all. We'd tried different ones, she'd play with them in her mouth, get mad if they fell, but never really sucked on it, so we just went without. It was hard to imagine at the time (only 3 years ago, when I didn't realize it wasn't a requirment...haha) that she didn't want it, but she let me know!!
This baby will be breastfed, and hopefully I will be able to do so without having to introduce a paci. The only reason I say that is I'm worried about nipple confusion and all that jazz. We shall see how it goes, if there she seems to be pacifying herself with mama, I might just have to save myself the hassle and give in
