As you walk through life beside your child with autism, you often find yourself seeing surroundings, experiences, and emotions in new ways as your child reminds you there is more than one way to process and engage with the world.
Through those discoveries you make together, you also gain a deeper understanding of how to create and follow routines that truly help your child feel calm, safe, and grounded while navigating life.
By experiencing life alongside your child and continually collecting insights about their needs and preferences, you know your child better than anyone — especially when it comes to their favorite comfort item, like a pacifier, that they carry with them throughout the day.
Ways Children with Autism Interact with the World
Autism spectrum disorder is a lifelong condition that shapes how a child perceives, interacts with, and responds to the world around them.
And because autism is a spectrum that can range from mild to more pronounced, each child with autism approaches and experiences life in their own unique ways, influencing their behaviors, social communication, needs, and preferences.
Children with autism may:
- Have less interest in others or avoid eye contact
- Experience fluctuating moods, like appearing withdrawn, reactive, or lively
- Struggle with or excel in learning
- Encounter difficulties when trying to interpret or use language, tones, gestures, or body language
- Find social settings challenging or struggle to connect with others
- Avoid touch, hugs, or being held
- Prefer to play alone or retreat into their own world
- Display repetitive tendencies, such as following strict routines, repeating words or phrases, or insisting on specific sequences of actions
- Engage in repetitive movements, like rocking, spinning, hand-flapping, or finger-flicking
- Become highly focused on a particular interest
- Be hypersensitive to certain sensory experiences, like bright lights, food textures, itchy fabrics, loud noises, or busy environments
With a set of characteristics unique to them, a child with autism often has specific needs and preferences that help them feel supported, calm, and safe each day. One common source of comfort and security among children with autism is simple but often essential: a pacifier.
Why Pacifiers Are Soothing for Children with Autism
As the parent or caregiver of a child with autism, you likely already know one reliable way to help your child relax and regroup when they feel overwhelmed: encouraging them to use their favorite pacifier.
There is a reason this method works. When your child sucks or chews on a pacifier, they engage in oral stimulation, which helps regulate emotions and promotes relaxation.
This is why children with autism often form a strong connection to, or even a reliance on their pacifiers — they provide a consistent way to feel calm at any point during the day.
Common Benefits of Pacifier Use for Children with Autism
Here are some common benefits a child with autism may experience when using a pacifier:
- Comfort and Security: Helps with feeling safe, calm, and grounded
- Reduced Stress and Anxiety: Supports emotional regulation
- Improved Focus: Provides an activity to use up extra energy that may be distracting
- Oral Motor Development: Strengthens oral muscles and coordination for eating, swallowing, and speaking
- Behavioral Regulation: Reduces unwanted oral behaviors, such as biting or chewing inappropriate or harmful objects
As shown, pacifiers can play a helpful role in supporting your child as they navigate life with autism. However, it is also important to understand the possible complications that may arise from extended use.
Possible Complications of Prolonged Pacifier Use
Here are some potential, but significant risks associated with pacifier use after about age 2 or 3:
- Dental Issues: Changes in teeth alignment, jaw development, and palate shape from frequent sucking or chewing on silicone or rubber pacifiers
- Speech Struggles: Interference with babbling and talking due to regular pacifier use
- Comfort Dependence: Over-reliance on pacifiers that makes transitioning to other soothing items more challenging
To help reduce these risks, you can gradually introduce alternative comfort items that offer similar calming effects for your child.
Alternative Sources of Comfort for Children with Autism
If your child is around 2 or 3 years old and still relies on a pacifier for feeling at ease, here are some options you can slowly introduce to help them discover new, safer comfort items:
- Fidget Toys: Redirect excess energy.
- Weighted Blanket: Promotes a sense of security.
- Plushies (Stuffed Toys): Offer comfort through a soft, tactile experience.
- Sippy Cups: Provide a similar oral experience to a pacifier in an age-appropriate way.
- Chewelry or Chewy Tubes (Chewy Q): Give your child a safe and convenient way to chew and self-soothe.
Along with comfort items, you can help your child feel relaxed, secure, and supported by using grounding methods such as:
- Deep Pressure Techniques: Create relaxing experiences through firm, gentle touch or compression — such as weighted blankets, massages, or tight hugs — that help with emotional regulation.
- Structured Lifestyle and Routines: Establish predictability that feels stable and safe.
- Quality Time: Brings comfort through snuggling, rocking, and other calm interactions.
If your child continues to struggle with self-soothing after trying these pacifier alternatives, a pediatric occupational therapist can guide you in exploring and introducing other techniques tailored to your child’s specific needs.
How Pediatric Occupational Therapy Can Be Supportive
Pediatric occupational therapy is designed to help children develop skills for thinking, learning, socializing, moving, and practicing regular self-care — strengthening their independence and encouraging confident participation in daily activities.
To help your child wean off a pacifier and transition to safer alternatives, a pediatric occupational therapist will tailor in-clinic sessions and at-home practice using professional assessments and evidence-based methods. This kind of personalized support creates a comfortable experience for your child as they successfully adjust to change.
Some approaches that may be used during this process include:
- Gradual Reduction: Limiting your child’s pacifier use to specific times or situations.
- Positive Reinforcement: Suggesting ways to praise or reward your child’s attempts at self-soothing without their pacifier.
- Safe Substitutes: Offering strategies for introducing new comfort items with encouragement and positive communication.
- Structured Routines and Visual Supports: Helping you create visual schedules to show your child when pacifier use is allowed.
- Sensory Integration Techniques: Developing daily sensory activities that incorporate new comfort items for your child to explore.
Reach Out to Little Hands at Play for Expert Guidance
If your child is struggling to use pacifier alternatives for self-soothing, contact our team today online or at (479) 329-1471. We will connect you with one of our experienced pediatric occupational therapists, someone specialized in supporting children with autism as they learn new ways to navigate day-to-day life.
At Little Hands at Play Therapy, we are passionate about helping children develop essential skills for thriving. Here, your child’s needs always come first.
