To tell if a baby with a pacifier is truly hungry or just wants to comfort suck, watch for early hunger cues like rooting, mouth opening, hand-to-mouth movement, and restlessness, which signal a need for food, while comfort sucking often involves just sucking without these other signs, sometimes with the pacifier being spit out if offered, or a calmer, focused sucking rhythm. Crying is a late hunger sign, so respond to the earlier cues to ensure a calm feeding.
You can recognize his hunger cues, so if he falls asleep with a pacifier and wakes up cueing more frantically than usual, you'll know that he probably was still hungry and that you should feed him more next time.
As their stomach fills up, you may notice a change: the strength of their suck decreases, swallowing becomes less frequent, and you might feel their tongue lightly tickling the tip of your nipple. This is a sign that they are shifting from active eating to non-nutritive sucking.
No. They can disguise hunger cues, but they don't make your baby less hungry. Use the pacifier if you need to give yourself a break.
How to tell if your baby is full:
While some hungry babies will spit out their pacifier and vociferously demand a feeding, other underfed infants are more passive. They fool us by acting content to suck nonnutritively on a pacifier when they really need to be obtaining milk.
Signs of overfeeding a baby include frequent spitting up/vomiting, fussiness, gassiness, a tight belly, and changes in stool (loose, green, frothy, or explosive). While babies often know when they're full (turning away, falling asleep), signs of overfeeding often involve discomfort and digestive issues, sometimes with rapid weight gain or a very full, hard tummy, especially if fed past fullness cues.
Pacifiers may hide feeding cues in breastfeeding babies. Feeding cues are ways that your baby tells you that they are hungry. Eventually, this can affect your milk supply. This will increase the chances that you will need to supplement with formula.
Limit the time you allow your child to use a pacifier. Use it only for sleep time and comfort until about 12 months old and then plan to give it up. Never use punishment or humiliation to force your child to give up using a pacifier.
The 5-3-3 feeding rule is a baby sleep training strategy to encourage longer stretches of night sleep by delaying feeds: don't feed before 5 hours after bedtime, then feed, then wait 3 hours for the next feed, and another 3 hours for the next, using other sleep training methods (like Ferber or CIO) for wakes outside these windows. It's for older babies (not newborns) and aims to reduce night feedings by establishing a routine, but flexibility is key, and you should always prioritize your baby's hunger cues and consult a doctor.
Your baby may have some of these symptoms:
The hardest week with a newborn is often considered the first six weeks, especially weeks 2-3, due to extreme sleep deprivation, constant feeding demands, learning baby's cues, postpartum recovery, and a peak in inconsolable crying (the "witching hour"), making parents feel overwhelmed as they adjust to a new, exhausting routine. While the first week is tough, the challenges often intensify as the baby becomes more alert but still fussy, with major developmental hurdles like cluster feeding and increased fussiness peaking around 6-8 weeks.
If you choose to offer your baby a pacifier, keep these tips in mind: Don't use a pacifier as a first choice for soothing your baby. Sometimes a change of position or a rocking session can calm a crying baby. Offer a pacifier to your baby only after feedings or between feedings.
The 7 key danger signs for newborns, often highlighted by organizations like the WHO, are not feeding well, convulsions, fast breathing, severe chest indrawing, lethargy/unconsciousness (movement only when stimulated), high or low temperature, and jaundice (yellow skin/soles) or signs of local infection like an infected umbilical stump, requiring immediate medical attention.
Gentle touches like rubbing your baby's back while they're on their tummy or swaddling them can provide much-needed comfort. Top tip: the natural soothing effect of a pacifier, such as the Philips Avent Ultra Air Pacifier can help tackle discomfort caused by gas.
According to research, intense use of pacifiers, defined as use over several hours during the day, can have a detrimental effect on speech and language development, especially for children past 2–3 years of age (Giugliani et al., 2021; Strutt et al., 2021).
Pacifier use is not recommended before your newborn is 3-4 weeks old so they can establish breastfeeding skills. Offering a pacifier during sleep can reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). There's a lower risk of developing finger or thumb sucking habits.
Watch for these signs that your baby is hungry, and then feed baby right away:
The "4-4-4 rule" for breast milk is a simple storage guideline: fresh milk is good for 4 hours at room temperature (up to 77°F/25°C), for 4 days in the refrigerator (39°F/4°C or colder), and up to 4-6 months (or longer) in a standard freezer (0°F/-18°C). It's a handy mnemonic, though some organizations like the CDC recommend up to 6 months in the freezer and the AAP up to 9 months, with deeper freezers offering even longer storage.
Potential complications of pacifier use, particularly with prolonged use, include a negative effect on breastfeeding, dental malocclusion, and otitis media. Adverse dental effects can be evident after two years of age, but mainly after four years.
An overfed baby's poop may be loose, watery, greenish, or frothy. It can appear more frequently than usual and may have a sour smell. These changes result from the digestive system struggling to process excess milk, especially if there's an imbalance between foremilk and hindmilk intake.
Watch for signs that your baby is full (slowing down, spitting out the bottle or unlatching from breast, closing the mouth, turning away from the breast or bottle) and stop the feeding when these signs appear. As babies grow, they begin to eat more at each feeding and can go longer between feedings.
Watch out for these common signs of overfeeding a baby: