LET'S TALK ABOUT THE HISTORY OF BABY PACIFIERS!
BY
Molly Jebber
Amish Romance Author
For those of you who know me, I had a new grandbaby, and her name is Jolene. She's five months, and pacifiers had me thinking - how did they come into being? When I was little, I sucked my two middle fingers and called them chocolate and vanilla. My daughter chose her thumb, and she finally gave it up to win M&M's.
Babies suck their fingers or thumb in the womb and out of the womb, so this is the first "pacifier" they used. Archeologists have found clay animals with a hole in the the small clay animals mouths used in the second century to put honey into for the baby to satisfy sucking. Not recommended by the dentists!
In the 1680's, a corn cob was used by many mothers as a pacifier for their babies. During the seventeen through nineteen centuries, coral was a term used to describe the type of pacifiers used. Pacifiers were made of coral, bone, or ivory and attached to a piece of silver for the baby to suck.
Over the centuries, pacifiers were constructed out of metal, gold, and silver. Ouch!
In the turn of the nineteenth century, rubber was molded into a small animal or round or square pacifier for the baby to suck on, but parents didn't like the taste, smell. Other negatives were the sulfuric and lead-based additives that have since been removed from pacifiers. Next pacifiers were made in the shape of a baby bottle nipple or ring, but the same issues I've mentioned were still a problem. A nipple-shaped rubber pacifier was most offered in a maroon, brown, or clear pacifier. It wasn't until the 1980's when dental issues were addressed.
Now, we have Mr. Browns, Medulla, Playtex (who first branded the name "binky" for a pacifier) and many more who provide safe pacifiers of different shapes and sizes for babies.
Did you use a pacifier for your babies?
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Molly Jebber's website Visit my website to see a book trailer and more about LIZA'S SECOND CHANCE which is being made into a movie by SONY/PUREFLIX.
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Thanks for posting today, and for contributing to the blog monthly. You all make it a pleasure to come in and read the entries every day. I can't remember if my son used a pacifier but my daughter did and was attached to one specific one which got lost. She must have been a little less than a year old and I could never find another that she would accept, so problem solved regarding weaning her off it!!
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