: Do dummies ("pacifiers") hinder speech development? I have always frowned on the use of dummies, because my mother (who ran a nursery for 25 years) was adamant that they can hinder a child's speech development. Our new baby

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LINK to ADA discussion on tooth development

So, it seems that use before teeth start to come in is fine. Like thumb-sucking, stopping it early is the way to go.

Also, if thumb-sucking and pacifier use goes beyond the 'norm', then it might be a problem, but is usually not a significant factor in speech development. LINK speech path

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I remembered reading that recent pediatric research in the US has said that pacifiers are OK. I looked at some recent papers and found these:

Pacifiers reduce the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). That's a pretty strong recommendation for nap-time use.
Pacifiers probably don't interfere with breast-feeding. There's correlation between pacifier-use and poor breast-feeding, but the suspicion is that trouble breast-feeding leads to more use, rather than the other way around.
Pacifiers are a risk-factor for acute otitis media (ear infections). Pretty weird, I thought. Other risk factors include not breast-feeding, living with smokers, having siblings, and going to day-care. The risk increase is pretty small, but they say that if you use a pacifier and your kid gets an infection, you might consider stopping, because the risk increase for repeated infections is greater.
Pacifiers may cause some tooth/mouth deformation, but that generally stops when the child discontinues sucking. This paper is the oldest of the bunch by far, and so I wonder if modern pacifiers might not be better, but I couldn't find any newer study.

I would summarize these papers as saying pacifiers are good for infants below 6 months of age, bad for children over 3 years of age, and neutral for children aged 6 months to 3 years.

edit: I realized I didn't actually answer your specific question. I found no papers at all on the subject of pacifiers and speech development, which implies that the concern is not considered credible by current pediatricians.

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This is my opinion, not a study, but I suspect the statement is related to awake/play time, not rest and sleep. By 6 months your baby should move past the collic phase and so either no longer require the dummy/pacifier or only need it for sleep.