The First Years Soothie Newborn Pacifiers

When our new baby boy was born, we received a Soothie Newborn Pacifier from The First Years at the hospital.  This was actually the first time that I have seen these pacifiers.  I don't mind pacifiers and we have lucked out and have never had a problem breaking any of our kids from them when they were babies.  Our new baby boy took this pacifier right from the start.  In fact, this was the only one he would take for the first two weeks of his life.  He turned 3 weeks old yesterday - boy does time fly by!

Description

The First Years Soothie Newborn Pacifier is a green like color.  It looks more like a blue green to me.  The whole pacifier is made of silicone.  The front of it is circular and is about 1 ½ inches in diameter.  The thickness was a little hard to measure but it's approximately a centimeter thick.  The front part of the pacifier also kind of resembles a smiley face.  There are 2 holes on the front of it and there is a curved indentation that resembles a smile.  I'm not sure exactly what the holes are for (on any pacifier for that matter).  I think it's to let baby's cheeks and skin around his mouth breath while sucking on it.  That's what I have always assumed.  You could probably use the holes on this one for one of those pacifier clip things but these holes are a little smaller than on other pacifiers and I never really though about using one on this one.

There is also a little rubbery handle like thing on the front of it.  This makes it easy to hold on to while you are trying to get baby going on it.  The nipple part of the Soothie actually looks like a bottle nipple.  It resembles the bottle nipples at the hospital pretty closely.  I think that's why our baby took to it so well.  The nipple part is about and inch long.  The inside of the nipple is also hollow and there is a hole on the front so that you could actually put your finger through the hole and inside the nipple.  I sometimes found doing this also helped our little man to get going on it as well. 

Performance/Opinion

I can't believe I have never seen these before but I was actually pretty pleased with it.  Like I said, I don't have the slightest problem using pacifiers.  If it quiets a screaming baby, I don't mind in the least.  What I like about this particular pacifier is that when babies are first born, they sometimes take a little time adjusting to taking a bottle.  It's a new thing they have to learn and I have to say, this pacifier helped him the first day he was here.  Of course after the first day, he didn't have a problem with taking a bottle.

Another use that I found interesting was when he went to the doctor for his 2 week checkup; his doctor actually used the pacifier to check his mouth.  She used the hollowed out feature so that she can see how well he is sucking and things like that.  I don't remember a doctor doing this with our other two kids but it has been almost 4 years since we had a newborn.  Of course before using any pacifiers or bottles/nipples, I always wash them before I use them.  I usually also boil water and put them in the water to sterilize them.  This pacifier won't melt in the water or melt if it touches the sides of the pan.

Since we only got one of these at the hospital, I decided to look for them at the store.  We found a pack of blue ones and a pack of pink ones.  There were two in a pack for about $4 at Wal-Mart.  We bought the blue ones because I wasn't going to buy our little guy pink ones.  We found that there is a difference between those ones and the green ones.  They were harder than the green ones and he didn't want anything to do with them.  I couldn't find any green ones anywhere until about a week ago when he gave up on his Soothie.  (He now prefers a different pacifier.)  I did notice that it seems like the green ones are the actual Newborn ones.  They are softer than the blue or pink ones.

Overall, I thought this pacifier was great.  Like I said, I think they are good for babies until they get older.  I think this one is great for newborns.  It is easy for them to get used to and it also helps them when they are first born to get used to a bottle.  I don't know how helpful it is when breastfeeding because I have never actually done it.  I also think its pretty cool that I could see inside my son's mouth while he was sucking on it.  It was actually pretty neat!  This pacifier didn't last long only because he didn't want it anymore after a couple weeks.  I guess he decided he wanted something different.  I just wish he wouldn't get stuck on a certain kind!