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Episode 309: 5 Airway Health Tips for Children with Hallie Bulkin, MA CCC-SLP, CMT®, CPFT™

6 Mar 2025 · 1 min

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This content was created by Hallie Bulkin. This content was uploaded by Hallie Bulkin. This is a YouTube video titled "Episode 309: 5 Airway Health Tips for Children with Hallie Bulkin, MA CCC-SLP, CMT®, CPFT™" (created 2025-03-06). The excerpt is a monologue by Hallie Bulkin, a speech-language pathologist, advising caregivers that pacifiers are generally recommended to be discontinued by six months, warning that prolonged use can interfere with chewing and oral development, and explaining that pacifier or thumb sucking may be a compensatory strategy to advance the lower jaw and open the airway. She cautions against abruptly removing these habits without assessing the underlying needs and providing alternatives.

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By six months.

Episode 309.

Chapters

Recommend pacifier out by six months. But if they've been using it well past this is not to shame you. This is just to tell you, hey, that might actually be interfering with healthy chewing and oral development. So it's just something that we want to be aware of so that we can help them. The child may also be using a pacifier to advance their lower jaw and open their airway. They may be thumb sucking for the same reason. So sometimes I don't want to just cold turkey take it away. They may need that. That may be a compensatory strategy for them, and it might be really, really helping them. So. So before we take it away, we need to figure out what's going on and what we can do to replace that so they no longer need it.