Dummy babies

We never gave either of our babies pacifiers - (now 20 months and 5 1/2 months).

Theory being
If you give them the pacifier, and it falls out - YOU have to replace it.
If you give them the pacifier now, later YOU need to deal with tears as you take it away.

Babies like to suck to comfort themselves - some of the breast feeding they do is because they want the comfort (although most id b/c they are hungry!)

Babies suck their fingers and thumbs (and toes!) to 'explore' these things with their mouths, and to comfort themselves.

I am thrilled when our 5 1/2 month old sucks her thumb/fingers to comfort herself, as it shows us she is able to 'self sooth' and therefore calm herself when she needs to.

you needn't worry that under 1 years old suck their thumb will become 4 year olds with a bad habit - most babies only do it sometimes and stop after 1-2 years.

It is a total personal choice of the parents, but we have never given a pacifier and are very please with the results!

Okay ... and I admit I am going to take this off topic a tad ...

Given the penchant for small children to 'suck' (In the literal sense), what provisions have the parents here made for the possible availability for lead on toys ... maybe a crib that is painted bright colours etc.

For example, my son used to stand up in the crib and he often had the top rail of the crib in his mouth simply because it was even with his mouth.

Thinking back, although it was predominantly white, it did have Red and Blu and was the same 'gloss' as some of the Fischer Price toys. (We are talking about 14 years ago now.)

So ... what are all you new parents doing now since the Chinese guy in charge has made a statement that he considers lead a substance of 'allergic' reaction and not a health risk and they have only banned the paint on goods exported to the USA?