I watched an advertisement this morning selling a portable pacifier steriliser. It was small enough to fit in the palm of an adult’s hand. There was a hole in the middle where a clean pacifier sat waiting to be replaced with the offending one. The container had sterilising liquid at the base. I’m not sure how practical it will be because babies are forever dropping their pacifiers to the floor. You’d need half a dozen of those sterilisers.
A small container with sterilising liquid would be more practical and I seem to remember people doing that, way back when. You could keep two or three spares in them. But why bother? Mothers of my generation will tell you that the easiest way to clean a baby’s pacifier when you are not at home is to suck it clean and shove it back in your child’s mouth.’ Eeuw,’ I hear you say. How disgusting exchanging each other’s fluids and germs like that, not to mention what was picked up off the floor. But when you become a mother you get to do lots of eeuw type things like changing dirty nappies and cleaning up snot and vomit. l I must admit though that I couldn’t quite get myself to suck something that had dog hairs on it or grit. I’d look for a nearby tap to give the pacifier a quick rinse. But we live in a germy world and ourselves have consumed a fair few in our lifetime. Germs strengthen the baby’s immune system. I wasn’t as fussed about sterilising as some of my friends were.
Of course, once we all got around to our second child we were a lot more laid back. And giving those pacifiers the personal touch is not nearly as disgusting as watching your child suck up cigarette butts or stuffing dog food in its mouth. Babies are at the experimental stage and absorbing taste, smell and sound. I’ve known children to take mud pies seriously. Babies are not fussy. So, although wrapping children in cotton-wool isn’t advisable, parents have to be fussy for them. Keep medication and bleach and all of those inside chemicals out of their reach. The rule of thumb being a common sense one; ‘eeuw’ aside, if it’s unsafe for you then it’s unsafe for your child.
Child and Adult 