The Problem with Pacifiers

When my kids were babies, they never liked pacifiers. This wasn't a huge problem, because I never had to deal with weaning them from the pacifier habit. I never understood, though, why they disliked them so much.

Fifteen years later, I have my answer.

My teenaged daughter is going out trick-or-treating as a baby. She has a flannel onesie and a pacifier that she will wear on a ribbon around her neck. The other day, while I was helping her with her homework, she put the pacifier in her mouth and quickly spit it out. Obviously, she still had a strong distaste for it.

"You don't like pacifiers?" I asked.

She shook her head and made a face. "They're disgusting. They're soft and rubbery, and they taste like chemicals."

Mystery solved. My big baby used her words to inform us that pacifiers have a terrible texture and taste bad. Makes me wonder why most babies like them so much.