This Mom’s Genius Trick That Stops Her Baby Crying Is Going Viral, But Not Everyone Approves It
One of the most common reasons to cry for a baby is waking up with pacifier fallen out, and the dear baby would so like a replacement.
While many parents have struggled with this over the years, getting up every hour or so to faithfully put the pacifier back while certain that it will soon fall out again, Laura Gerson, user of British parenting site ‘The Motherload’ has come up with an ingeniously simple life hack and it is proving to be very popular. “I’m completely amazed that this parenting tip has gone viral!” Laura told Bored Panda. “We put it on The Motherload Facebook group as a kind of humorous post because she looked so cute with them all around her, and cannot believe the response from it.”
Instead of a single pacifier in the crib, which can easily be misplaced or fall down the sides, Laura decided to place 10 or more pacifiers all around the crib. This is like a ‘bar’ for baby Amelia, who can reach out as soon as the pacifier drops and almost instantly find a replacement. “She isn’t a total dummy fiend and doesn’t even have them through the day. But it really soothes her having them through the night, and having more in there makes it easy for her to find one, and hold one (or two), Laura explained. “She loves the comfort of holding them and the fact that she can find them easily without the stress she causes herself of her waking when she couldn’t find one.”
The post was met with gratitude and amazement from parents who couldn’t believe that they hadn’t thought of such a simple parenthood hack earlier. “Lots of people do use this trick already, but lots of people don’t,” Laura told Bored Panda. “The way I see it is that if it helps just one family get a good night’s sleep while raising kids from something so simple, then it’s absolutely worth it. Happy baby, happy mummy!
Scroll down below to check out Laura and Amelia’s story, and feel free to share your own parenting hacks in the comments!
Being a new parent is hard, especially if you’re sleep deprived
This mum shared a hack on how she sleeps through the night every night
“Since my little one was about 3 months she’s gone to bed with 10 dummies in with her”
“I found that when she cried of a night all she wanted was a dummy, then she’d go back off”
“She isn’t a total dummy-fiend and doesn’t even have them through the day really, but it really soothes her having them through the night”
Immediately after sharing the post, parents started to congratulate her on the hack, agreeing that it does indeed work
Others had a very different pacifier policy
And some believe that it’s simply every parents choice, defending those who use pacifiers
What do you think about this hack? Would you try it with your children?
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Share on FacebookI've learned not to read comments, even on here you find people getting mad at just plain drawing posts. Be a better person when you step away from your screen.
Had I also learned to not to read comments, I would have missed on this gem - "Be a better person when you step away from your screen." :)
Load More Replies...There are few topics where you are so quickly judged as when it comes to parenting. This is particularly true for pacifiers. Why black and white thinking? Yes, pacifiers will deform teeth and hamper speaking when worn all day long still by four-year olds. But also yes, pacifies help a lot of babies have a craving to suck, and even for breastfeeding moms it is not feasible to have the baby be on the breast half day long. And would you rather have the baby suck on the thumb, which is equally bad for the teeth if sustained? There is no "thumb fairy", who will eventually come. Thus: being a critical parent is a good choice, judging others is not unless things are really clear.
I was coming to talk about thumb sucking. Because my brother didn't have a pacifier, he used his thumb and not only sucked it, but pushed up the roof of his mouth leading to way worse dental problems. You can take away a soother but not a thumb! :)
Load More Replies...I swear the people getting mad about this either had the easiest kids to raise or never have had children. When your baby is crying non stop and you haven't slept for an entirety you do whatever it takes
I'd say you're lucky if a pacifier is all it takes. According to my parents, the insomnia I still often deal with is from birth, and I often needed one of them to hold me through the night to sleep or I'd cry, and I never liked pacifiers. My twin brother never needed pacifiers either, and he just slept. You put him in the crib, five minutes in he was in deep sleep, and even me crying didn't wake him up. Babies just are very different.
Load More Replies...I will repeat the wise advise of my obstetrician when counseling me because I was hesitant to take the "easy" route and have a second C-section instead of a natural birth: " Listen- sometimes easy is good" is what he told me. I think it applies here. Happy babies have less stressed parents, and less stressed parents have happy babies. If you stand up on the pedestal of "one-way parenting" then God bless you, but a sense of humor about this stuff is the best parenting tool ever!
Messes up their teeth? This is the equivalent of anti-vaxxers research for dummies. Kids generally need braces on their big teeth, not baby teeth and the only teeth near dummies are baby teeth! I would walk around with like 3 pacifiers at a time as a toddler and my parents weaned me off. Don't know anyone that has had any kind of trauma from using dummies Babies have the need to suckle and if it isn't a dummy, it'll most likely be their thumb - and that isn't something you can take away to wean them off!
I was opposed to pacifiers before I had kids. My firt delivery didn't go well and end up in an emergency C-section. With the stress my rise of milk was late (3rd day), he was my first baby, I was lost, hormones went wild and he was stressed too, of course. He needed to suck. I start giving him my little finger all day long encouraged by the nurse because "once you give the pacifier you lose the battle". I couldn't sleep of course. And then, I met another nurse who told me that raising kids was not about battle. That I didn't have to make him my ennemy and that if I could get some rest, I would be in a better state of mind to bound with him and calm him down. Blessed this woman. My daughter didn't need a pacifier, she never had. It's not a mute button, it's about listening to your baby needs. when he/she grow up, you can had rules like "only to sleep".
As a Mom of 3, a son and 2 daughters this is my experience with pacifiers. My son, now 23 never used a pacifier. The nurses at the hospital tried to have him use one, he didn't like them. He needed braces. My oldest daughter, now 21 was lactose intolerant whick made her a spitty or wet burpring baby. As I was taught by my beloved grandma who raised me. Babies often confuse belly aches/gas for being hungry so that leads to over feeding and projectile vomiting. She needed a pacifier. Her Dr reaffirmed what my grandma said. I weaned her from using it while she was awake at 6 months and then fully at 1 yr. She never needed braces. My youngest daughter, now 13 was pretty much a carbon copy feeding wise of her older sister. She took a pacifier. My struggle to wean her was a long struggle. Bing so much younger than her siblings made it even harder. Long battle story short, she was 4 before I weaned her. She has perfect teeth. I myself sucked my thumb until I was 5, perfect teeth.
I have a twin brother, and none of us ever wanted to suck on a pacifier. He needed braces and I didn't - ot perfect teeth, but only on of my front teeth is slight off. And I used to bite my nails hard when I was around 5 or so. I have bruxism, though. I think a lot of that is just genes, like whether you'll get wisdom teeth or not, and whether they'll need to be pulled out.
Load More Replies...As I was reading her post I expected to see the crib filled with ventriloquist dummies. What an odd term for a pacifier.
A lot of Spanish-speaking people in the US call it a bobo.
Load More Replies...question, can pacifiers really mess up a child's teeth? like its just their baby teeth, and those suckers pop out. So in the long run does that actually matter?
It's like everything, it's never all black or white. There are good and bad sides, here is something from the site "knowyourteeth" : ""Contrary to popular belief, there are some positive effects that result from sucking on pacifiers," says Jane Soxman, DDS, author of the study and Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry. "One is that they assist in reducing the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Babies who are offered a pacifier do not sleep as deeply as those who sleep without a pacifier. Pacifier sucking makes it possible for the infant to be aroused from a deep sleep that could result in the stopping of breathing. Pacifiers also increase sucking satisfaction and provide a source of comfort to infants." However, parents should be aware of the negative effects of pacifier sucking on an infant's oral health. "Children should stop using pacifiers by age 2," says AGD spokesperson Luke Matranga, DDS, MAGD, ABGD.
Load More Replies...Jeez, a cute kid with a pacifier is controversial? Sometimes they just aren't enough hours in the day for me to keep up with the things that are supposed to offend me. Thank God for social media for keeping me up to speed.
Parents up at every hour really don't care about their kids teeth being a little bit crooked in the future, all they want to do is sleep and get their kid to sleep! And if a dummy works, give the kid 20.
I love the language difference. They're called dummies there and pacifiers here.
Anyone saying a dummy will mess up teeth configuration, I never used a dummy because i sucked on my thumb.You don't want to know how messed up my mouth was. I needed 5 years of braces and both my palate and jaw had to be broken repeatedly to fix them. I would have preferred if my mother forced me to have a dummy instead.
Something else to consider most soothers are orthodontic (minimising damage to milk teeth) also so vs. thumb sucking is much easier to stop the habit completely...Some babies have a need to just suck. I agree though seeing older toddlers with a soother is a bit much especially for their speech development plus it encourages them to act up like a baby...
Well, of all the things that can happen to "screw up" a kid, I think you are Free and Clear! Just keep loving them (and sleep when you can)!
I preferred pacifiers over thumbs bc they will ALWAYS have a thumb to suck and mess up their teeth and a pacifier can up and leave anytime I want it to hit the road. 36 years ago
My brother is a dentist and says pacifiers get a bad rap. The sucking helps with ears and jaw lines. Neither of my daughters would take them and had extensive dental procedure because of their underdeveloped jaw line. Whatever works and is not dangerous. Motherknows best.
I work in a crèche caring for babies from only weeks old up to 2 yrs old. Some babies won't go to sleep without a dummy while others refuse them. But for tired parents who need sleep, if the baby will take a dummy that's fine. Neither of our babies would take a dummy and both had to have braces fitted as teenagers, (i also worked for a dentist a few yrs ago).
Do what works! Forget the ones who are negative thinkers! A crying baby can learn to self soothe and a binkysprintfast a dummie is a big part of it. If it works, do it
Love, love dummies. Thought he would go to high school with it but didn’t care if I could sleep.
I have three children and all these comments about dummies causing dental problems makes me laugh. Only one of my children would use a dummy and he is the only one without dental problems so I say if your child needs soothing and a dummy works go for it.
Why the multiple pacifiers (as they're called in the US)? I simply tied a short length of ribbon (not enough to choke on) to the pacifier and pinned the other end of the ribbon to their gown. My girls learned quickly that when the pacifier fell out of their mouth, grabbing the ribbon would bring it right back to them.
There's no perfect way to parent, if the child is comforted and sleeps through the night without risk to their health, then great. I'm going to be a mother really soon (like in 2 months, super scary btw) and my biggest hope is that my baby is healthy, mind and body. If giving them what they find comforting at such a young age means being a bad parent, then I guess I'm going to fail. I just feel like parenting doesn't have to be a struggle, some people just seem to enjoy making it so.
Fun to hear of somebody else using the "pacifier fairy". I used this with my daughter, oh, 25 years ago. The "pacifier fairy" took her pacifiers and replaced them with little glow in the dark troll doll. She played with them till she fell asleep.
Good hack when you know your baby well. I did it with my first born, because I knew that's what he needed and he knew perfectly the difference between the pacifier and the breast. I even taught him to leave his pacifiers in his crib. Didn't work with my second born, though, he needed to be held (forever!) to fall asleep.
I usually avoid commenting on controversial articles but I felt the need to point out that foetuses have been known to suck their thumb while in their mother's womb. So please don't blame the use of a pacifier for a child's thumb-sucking habit. Enjoy your day :)
We have 3 pacifiers in her crib at night! Absolutely works! I only get up once for a feeding. No more getting up to find her pacifier for her!!!
My son had one when he was a baby and he has perfectly straight teeth.
Meh. My second one never had a paci. Tried him and he spit the darn things out. He wouldn't take a bottle either. Preferred mommy and his thumb, and he figured out where his thumb was before he was two weeks old. We called him "Mr. Natural". My daughter was born with a little callus on her thumb which the doctor said showed that she had been sucking it in utero. No arguing with that! They both gave it up long before they started school and neither one ever needed braces. So.
I have four kids. I initially did not want to give them pacifiers, mostly because of the teeth issues (needing braces later) but one of my sons cried almost non-stop and would not sleep. We tried everything and took him to doctors. For everybody's health I did try giving him pacifiers, but he would take them. Now my kids are all teenagers and none of them ever used pacifiers and, guess what, they all need braces anyway.
I wanna bet that most of the anti-dummy posters had one themselves growing up. Do they give their parents a hard time for doing that? I doubt it. If you dont want your child to have one? Fine don't and just do it your way. Those who do want to have the right to make that choice.
I don't understand why you are so obsessed with this topic. My advice to you is...Learn to let go. Especially when it comes down to someone else's kids' pacifiers
Load More Replies...I've learned not to read comments, even on here you find people getting mad at just plain drawing posts. Be a better person when you step away from your screen.
Had I also learned to not to read comments, I would have missed on this gem - "Be a better person when you step away from your screen." :)
Load More Replies...There are few topics where you are so quickly judged as when it comes to parenting. This is particularly true for pacifiers. Why black and white thinking? Yes, pacifiers will deform teeth and hamper speaking when worn all day long still by four-year olds. But also yes, pacifies help a lot of babies have a craving to suck, and even for breastfeeding moms it is not feasible to have the baby be on the breast half day long. And would you rather have the baby suck on the thumb, which is equally bad for the teeth if sustained? There is no "thumb fairy", who will eventually come. Thus: being a critical parent is a good choice, judging others is not unless things are really clear.
I was coming to talk about thumb sucking. Because my brother didn't have a pacifier, he used his thumb and not only sucked it, but pushed up the roof of his mouth leading to way worse dental problems. You can take away a soother but not a thumb! :)
Load More Replies...I swear the people getting mad about this either had the easiest kids to raise or never have had children. When your baby is crying non stop and you haven't slept for an entirety you do whatever it takes
I'd say you're lucky if a pacifier is all it takes. According to my parents, the insomnia I still often deal with is from birth, and I often needed one of them to hold me through the night to sleep or I'd cry, and I never liked pacifiers. My twin brother never needed pacifiers either, and he just slept. You put him in the crib, five minutes in he was in deep sleep, and even me crying didn't wake him up. Babies just are very different.
Load More Replies...I will repeat the wise advise of my obstetrician when counseling me because I was hesitant to take the "easy" route and have a second C-section instead of a natural birth: " Listen- sometimes easy is good" is what he told me. I think it applies here. Happy babies have less stressed parents, and less stressed parents have happy babies. If you stand up on the pedestal of "one-way parenting" then God bless you, but a sense of humor about this stuff is the best parenting tool ever!
Messes up their teeth? This is the equivalent of anti-vaxxers research for dummies. Kids generally need braces on their big teeth, not baby teeth and the only teeth near dummies are baby teeth! I would walk around with like 3 pacifiers at a time as a toddler and my parents weaned me off. Don't know anyone that has had any kind of trauma from using dummies Babies have the need to suckle and if it isn't a dummy, it'll most likely be their thumb - and that isn't something you can take away to wean them off!
I was opposed to pacifiers before I had kids. My firt delivery didn't go well and end up in an emergency C-section. With the stress my rise of milk was late (3rd day), he was my first baby, I was lost, hormones went wild and he was stressed too, of course. He needed to suck. I start giving him my little finger all day long encouraged by the nurse because "once you give the pacifier you lose the battle". I couldn't sleep of course. And then, I met another nurse who told me that raising kids was not about battle. That I didn't have to make him my ennemy and that if I could get some rest, I would be in a better state of mind to bound with him and calm him down. Blessed this woman. My daughter didn't need a pacifier, she never had. It's not a mute button, it's about listening to your baby needs. when he/she grow up, you can had rules like "only to sleep".
As a Mom of 3, a son and 2 daughters this is my experience with pacifiers. My son, now 23 never used a pacifier. The nurses at the hospital tried to have him use one, he didn't like them. He needed braces. My oldest daughter, now 21 was lactose intolerant whick made her a spitty or wet burpring baby. As I was taught by my beloved grandma who raised me. Babies often confuse belly aches/gas for being hungry so that leads to over feeding and projectile vomiting. She needed a pacifier. Her Dr reaffirmed what my grandma said. I weaned her from using it while she was awake at 6 months and then fully at 1 yr. She never needed braces. My youngest daughter, now 13 was pretty much a carbon copy feeding wise of her older sister. She took a pacifier. My struggle to wean her was a long struggle. Bing so much younger than her siblings made it even harder. Long battle story short, she was 4 before I weaned her. She has perfect teeth. I myself sucked my thumb until I was 5, perfect teeth.
I have a twin brother, and none of us ever wanted to suck on a pacifier. He needed braces and I didn't - ot perfect teeth, but only on of my front teeth is slight off. And I used to bite my nails hard when I was around 5 or so. I have bruxism, though. I think a lot of that is just genes, like whether you'll get wisdom teeth or not, and whether they'll need to be pulled out.
Load More Replies...As I was reading her post I expected to see the crib filled with ventriloquist dummies. What an odd term for a pacifier.
A lot of Spanish-speaking people in the US call it a bobo.
Load More Replies...question, can pacifiers really mess up a child's teeth? like its just their baby teeth, and those suckers pop out. So in the long run does that actually matter?
It's like everything, it's never all black or white. There are good and bad sides, here is something from the site "knowyourteeth" : ""Contrary to popular belief, there are some positive effects that result from sucking on pacifiers," says Jane Soxman, DDS, author of the study and Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry. "One is that they assist in reducing the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Babies who are offered a pacifier do not sleep as deeply as those who sleep without a pacifier. Pacifier sucking makes it possible for the infant to be aroused from a deep sleep that could result in the stopping of breathing. Pacifiers also increase sucking satisfaction and provide a source of comfort to infants." However, parents should be aware of the negative effects of pacifier sucking on an infant's oral health. "Children should stop using pacifiers by age 2," says AGD spokesperson Luke Matranga, DDS, MAGD, ABGD.
Load More Replies...Jeez, a cute kid with a pacifier is controversial? Sometimes they just aren't enough hours in the day for me to keep up with the things that are supposed to offend me. Thank God for social media for keeping me up to speed.
Parents up at every hour really don't care about their kids teeth being a little bit crooked in the future, all they want to do is sleep and get their kid to sleep! And if a dummy works, give the kid 20.
I love the language difference. They're called dummies there and pacifiers here.
Anyone saying a dummy will mess up teeth configuration, I never used a dummy because i sucked on my thumb.You don't want to know how messed up my mouth was. I needed 5 years of braces and both my palate and jaw had to be broken repeatedly to fix them. I would have preferred if my mother forced me to have a dummy instead.
Something else to consider most soothers are orthodontic (minimising damage to milk teeth) also so vs. thumb sucking is much easier to stop the habit completely...Some babies have a need to just suck. I agree though seeing older toddlers with a soother is a bit much especially for their speech development plus it encourages them to act up like a baby...
Well, of all the things that can happen to "screw up" a kid, I think you are Free and Clear! Just keep loving them (and sleep when you can)!
I preferred pacifiers over thumbs bc they will ALWAYS have a thumb to suck and mess up their teeth and a pacifier can up and leave anytime I want it to hit the road. 36 years ago
My brother is a dentist and says pacifiers get a bad rap. The sucking helps with ears and jaw lines. Neither of my daughters would take them and had extensive dental procedure because of their underdeveloped jaw line. Whatever works and is not dangerous. Motherknows best.
I work in a crèche caring for babies from only weeks old up to 2 yrs old. Some babies won't go to sleep without a dummy while others refuse them. But for tired parents who need sleep, if the baby will take a dummy that's fine. Neither of our babies would take a dummy and both had to have braces fitted as teenagers, (i also worked for a dentist a few yrs ago).
Do what works! Forget the ones who are negative thinkers! A crying baby can learn to self soothe and a binkysprintfast a dummie is a big part of it. If it works, do it
Love, love dummies. Thought he would go to high school with it but didn’t care if I could sleep.
I have three children and all these comments about dummies causing dental problems makes me laugh. Only one of my children would use a dummy and he is the only one without dental problems so I say if your child needs soothing and a dummy works go for it.
Why the multiple pacifiers (as they're called in the US)? I simply tied a short length of ribbon (not enough to choke on) to the pacifier and pinned the other end of the ribbon to their gown. My girls learned quickly that when the pacifier fell out of their mouth, grabbing the ribbon would bring it right back to them.
There's no perfect way to parent, if the child is comforted and sleeps through the night without risk to their health, then great. I'm going to be a mother really soon (like in 2 months, super scary btw) and my biggest hope is that my baby is healthy, mind and body. If giving them what they find comforting at such a young age means being a bad parent, then I guess I'm going to fail. I just feel like parenting doesn't have to be a struggle, some people just seem to enjoy making it so.
Fun to hear of somebody else using the "pacifier fairy". I used this with my daughter, oh, 25 years ago. The "pacifier fairy" took her pacifiers and replaced them with little glow in the dark troll doll. She played with them till she fell asleep.
Good hack when you know your baby well. I did it with my first born, because I knew that's what he needed and he knew perfectly the difference between the pacifier and the breast. I even taught him to leave his pacifiers in his crib. Didn't work with my second born, though, he needed to be held (forever!) to fall asleep.
I usually avoid commenting on controversial articles but I felt the need to point out that foetuses have been known to suck their thumb while in their mother's womb. So please don't blame the use of a pacifier for a child's thumb-sucking habit. Enjoy your day :)
We have 3 pacifiers in her crib at night! Absolutely works! I only get up once for a feeding. No more getting up to find her pacifier for her!!!
My son had one when he was a baby and he has perfectly straight teeth.
Meh. My second one never had a paci. Tried him and he spit the darn things out. He wouldn't take a bottle either. Preferred mommy and his thumb, and he figured out where his thumb was before he was two weeks old. We called him "Mr. Natural". My daughter was born with a little callus on her thumb which the doctor said showed that she had been sucking it in utero. No arguing with that! They both gave it up long before they started school and neither one ever needed braces. So.
I have four kids. I initially did not want to give them pacifiers, mostly because of the teeth issues (needing braces later) but one of my sons cried almost non-stop and would not sleep. We tried everything and took him to doctors. For everybody's health I did try giving him pacifiers, but he would take them. Now my kids are all teenagers and none of them ever used pacifiers and, guess what, they all need braces anyway.
I wanna bet that most of the anti-dummy posters had one themselves growing up. Do they give their parents a hard time for doing that? I doubt it. If you dont want your child to have one? Fine don't and just do it your way. Those who do want to have the right to make that choice.
I don't understand why you are so obsessed with this topic. My advice to you is...Learn to let go. Especially when it comes down to someone else's kids' pacifiers
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