How to choose the right dummy and without the risk of using it

• Choose a robust one-piece model that does not break into two parts and will not allow the child to choke. Also, find out if it can be washed in a dishwasher, and make sure it is easy to clean.

• Check if there are air vents in the base of the dummy. Do not take pacifiers with large round flaps that can close the nostrils of a child when he pulls a pacifier into himself with intense sucking.

• One size does not fit everyone. For the first months after birth, choose a smaller, shorter pacifier designed specifically for newborns.

• Soothers are available with different nipple shapes. Some are symmetrically round, like nipples for bottles. Others are given a certain form, designed to replicate the elongated and flattened nipple during feeding. However, molded nipples can not always lie well in the child's mouth, especially if the dummy turns over during sucking or if it is inserted upside down. Some manufacturers of dummies shout about the benefits of their special ortho-dont pacifiers, but it is doubtful. Try a different form and let me choose the finicky mouth of your baby.

• Never tie a pacifier to a string or ribbon and do not put a child around your neck, or pin a lace from the baby's dummy to the baby's clothes. These are the most suitable conditions for strangulation."But she falls to the floor all the time," you will complain. Answer: keep one hand on the child and the other on the wasteland.(Or pin a dummy ring to the child's clothes.) Perhaps children should not be ignored while they have something in their mouth. Safety and good care go hand in hand.

• Never make a pacifier yourself from a cotton nipple stuffed with a cotton bottle. The baby can pull the cotton in through the nipple opening.

• Resist the temptation to sweeten the dummy by dipping it in honey or syrup. If the child does not have teeth, it is too small for honey or syrup. If he has teeth, he is too grown-up for caries-causing sweets - and maybe for a dummy too. If he has to be forced to suck a dummy, resorting to sweetening, he probably would benefit from other entertainment - change the situation, get out into the fresh air, play with you, stay in your arms;perhaps it needs to be rocked or a bit vilified, and so on.

Our advice on pacifiers: in the first weeks of life, only the real nipple is placed in the mouth of the child. If you have a child who really needs a dummy, then eat, do not abuse, and lose as soon as possible.