Do You "Mouth Clean" Your Child's Pacifier? Read This!

We've all been there — you're at the playground with your kids, with the older one happily playing and the younger one (amazingly) sitting quietly in the stroller, happily sucking on his pacifier. All of a sudden he drops it (or spits it out) and it falls on the ground. Although you're supermom reflexes pick it up in less than 2 seconds, you panic knowing it's the only pacifier you've packed and don't have anywhere to clean it, besides the communal water fountain. 

Do you risk a meltdown from your older child by telling him you have to leave early, or risk your little one crying because he doesn't have his pacifier anymore?

As if on cue, your youngest starts wailing — so you hastily stick the pacifier in your mouth to "clean" it, and then pop it back in your baby's mouth, feeling guilty for giving your baby a dirty pacifier instead of risking your own sanity by throwing it away.

Believe us — you are not alone. And we come bearing some reassuring news!

According to a new study, sucking on your child's pacifier to "clean" it may help reduce your child's risk for asthma, eczema, and other allergies.

Researchers in Sweden believe that mouth-cleaning a pacifier transfers a mom's mouth microbes to the baby, therefore increasing baby's bacterial diversity, helping to boost his immunity to certain allergies, rashes, and skin problems.

Although the researchers who conducted the study admit that this technique isn't a sure-fire way to make sure your child doesn't develop allergies, they do say it's worth trying, and at the very least, parents can be assured that mouth-cleaning isn't harmful to their baby.

What's that we hear? Desperate Moms across the country breathing a collective sigh of relief?

Don't worry. We just did too!

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