Hi I met another mother at a playgroup I go to with my kids and we were talking about how to calm our babies down when they're upset. She said that she is constantly dipping his pacifier in sugar. I immediately thought this was not a good thing to do. I just wanted to know what other peoples thoughts were on this and maybe some expert advice on how this could affect the baby.

I don't know what to say. Was curious and went on Google and was amazed to find that sugar calms babies in distress. You may want to take a look at Google under 'sugar on pacifiers' and make an informed decision. I guess the jury is out but I imagine your post will illicit a lot of replies, pros cand cons, so hold on to your seat !

Well, even though it bothers us, it doesn't really matter whether it's a good thing to do or not because it's not our baby. I know I wouldn't do it and if it was my sister or a close friend doing it I'd probably give her an earful because it sounds like a bad idea to me. The last thing I would want is to give my child a sweet tooth at this age. But like I said, not our kid or even the kid of someone that we have a right to butt in on.

Milk is mostly sugar, so from a nutritional standpoint, its probably not horrible. I personally don't think its good parenting, but its not bad either. Its just one of those things that works. There is an old saying that I think applies here... "if its stupid but it works, its not stupid"

It would be bad if she were using honey as babies can have allergic reactions to it.

In the nursery I work at we use something called SweetEze during circumcisions in particular. It is basically sugar water and is very calming to the baby to the point that anesthetics rarely need to be used. We dip the pacifier in the SweetEze and the baby sucks away through the entire circumcision without a whimper.

I don't see dipping the child's pacifier in sugar routinely as a good thing, but when a child is unconsolable I can understand it's positive effects.

Ive heard from doctors and other professionals that dipping a baby's pacifier in sugar, or other sweet things can cause tooth and gum decay even when they don't have any teeth just yet- milk does have sugar in it but it usually gets consumed and not stick too much around in the mouth. With a pacifier it stays in the baby's mouth and isn't always completely consumed.
And you don't feed babies honey because of the huge risk of bubonic not because of allergic reactions :/