Pacifier Use Does Not Affect Breast-Feeding Duration

WEDNESDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- Pacifier use in healthy, full-term newborns, introduced before or after breast-feeding is established, has little impact on the prevalence or duration of breast-feeding up to four months, according to a review published online in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

Sharifah H. Jaafar, M.D., of the Ipoh Specialist Hospital in Malaysia, and colleagues analyzed two trials involving 1,302 healthy full-term infants, to assess whether pacifier use affected breast-feeding outcomes among mothers who intended to exclusively breast-feed. Outcome measures included breast-feeding duration up to four months and infant health.

The researchers found that, in healthy breast-fed infants, pacifier use had no significant impact on the proportion of infants exclusively or partially breast-fed at 3 and 4 months of age. Evidence was lacking, however, as to what short-term breast-feeding difficulties pacifier use may cause and the long-term effect on infant health.

"For mothers who are motivated to breast-feed their infants, pacifier use before or after breast-feeding was established did not significantly affect the prevalence or duration of exclusive and partial breast-feeding up to 4 months of age," the authors write.

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