A couple of days ago my husband and I were watching the news and one of the stories was about parents picking up dropped pacifiers and putting them in their own mouth to rinse off, which cleaned them and helped the baby’s immune system.
So after gagging, I looked at Paul and said, “Seriously?” The first image that came to mind was walking through a Wal-Mart, seeing a baby drop a pacifier, seeing a mom or dad picking it up, popping it in their mouth and then handing it back to baby. Double yuck!! Maybe it’s just me, maybe I wasn’t as good a mom as I could have been, maybe that’s why my son had allergies when he was little, because I just don’t think I could do that. But then again, I was the kind of mom who couldn’t and didn’t share my drinks with my son either. If his little mouth had touched the straw or the rim of my glass, it was his. To this day, I’ll dehydrate before drinking from someone’s drink. (Unless it’s alcohol, which I figure will kill any germs!)
The Swedish study that was done found that harmless bacteria transferred via pacifier from a parent’s mouth to their child’s actually stimulated their immune system, helping the child build defenses to allergies. Ok, I get that and I wouldn’t have a problem popping a CLEAN pacifier in my mouth and then giving it to my baby but I don’t want crud from a floor in my own mouth. Why not rinse the dirt off and then pop it in your mouth? I guess if you’re not around any liquids that could be a problem but I don’t know many parents who don’t travel with a juice box, bottle, sippy cup or bottle of water. In a worse case scenario I think I would spit on the pacifier or wipe it off on my shirt and then put it in my mouth.
Well my own baby is 23 so I don’t have to worry about that and our grand-kids don’t use pacifiers so for me, it’s not an issue. But I am curious about what other parents think.
So, would you (or do you) do this?
Please comment on this sticky topic below…