Breastmilk in a medicine-dispensing pacifier helps regulate baby's ear pressure

Amy's hack may come in handy for road trips, or for babies who simply scream while in cars (I had one of those):

Recently I drove through the mountains with my exclusively-breastfed 5 month-old.  She has never taken a pacifier, so I didn't know what to do to help her ears adjust to the pressure.  I wished that I had one of those pacifiers that you can use to dispense medicine!  I could've hand expressed a little breastmilk into it, and then passed it back to her.  Sure enough, I tried it after we got home, and it did the trick to calm her down from a crying fit (she's teething) in the car.  Of course, you should only do such things when other people are driving.  I thought other moms in the mountains or on road trips might be able to use this hack.

It's really hard to let down for a pacifier, but when your baby's screaming, it's a little easier!  :)

Comments

[DDmom]

Loved the tip. Wish I had known this before, could have used it in the flight during take off.

[Kate]

I (and a lot of moms I know) just loosen my buckle, lean over the car seat, and nurse baby to sleep. Not horribly comfortable, but beats the heck out of an hour long screaming fit. (Of course, my car seat is tethered to the floor of the car, so there's no danger of the seat flying back and crushing me. In a seat without a tether this could be a little dangerous.)

[Angeline]

i would consider a few ways to calm down such a child on a drive, either turned on the 'sleepy' music to calm her down, there are a lot of 'therapy' CDs to choose from.

if after 5 mins, the music still don't calm her, I would seriously consider finding a place to stop the drive, check her out, sometimes it may not be the pressure, she might just be feeling neglected.

[Michele]

Where can you get this pacifier?

[Parent Hacks Editor]

Michele: Click the picture or link to buy it from Amazon. I'm sure a big-box store (Target or Babys R Us) will have something similar as well.