Whether to Wubbanub

Featured in this grainy iPhone photo, aside from my toes and mismatched baby socks, is Henry’s “wubbanub.” Its name is Craig T. Nelson, Jr.

Henry has a powerful need to suck. He chomps and sucks Baby Daddy’s fingers all day long, depending of course on their level of cleanliness. He comfort nurses if a leaf falls off a tree (across the street. From my mother’s house in Arizona). Though he doesn’t take the pacifier consistently, when he does it’s a goddamn godsend.

The idea behind the wubbanub is that if the pacifier part falls out, the stuffed animal part’s weight keeps it close by so that it might be able to get back into the child’s mouth without parental intervention, or at least is less likely to tumble to the dirty floor, which pacifiers do quite often.

We got the wubbanub thinking it would help with Henry’s need to furiously suck the soothie when in the car seat, and, when upset in the car seat (which accounts for about 80% of his car seat time), to also wave his hands around his face, and launch the soothie out of his mouth.

When calm, the wubbanub really works. It sits on his chest, and if the soothie pops out, he can get it back into his mouth (not always, but often enough to make the baby gadget seem somewhat useful).

But we got the wubbanub just as Henry was discovering he could grip things. He was still terrible at it, but just proficient enough to grab pacis in his mouth, hold them for a moment, and unintentionally fling them hither and thither. The wubbanub cleverly provides much more surface area and nobby limbs for H to grab, and thus to get the paci out of his mouth, when he doesn’t want it in there, but also when he does.

Now Henry is getting pretty good at grabbing, and poor Craig T. Jr.’s job description has changed drastically. He is not a combination pacifier and soft toy anymore. He is a grabby throwy toy that we can’t get to stay anywhere near Henry for more than a few seconds. 

So, if you are considering a wubbanub for your child, think through the fact that it increases the chances of your child getting the pacifier out of his/her mouth and make an informed choice about a $10 pacifier. Or at least don’t do what we did–opt for the $15 dollar one, which had to be special ordered from–shock horror!–a website that DID NOT HAVE FREE SHIPPING (making it, technically, a $20 pacifier), because YOUR child must have the cool red dragon one, instead of those super lame babyish puppy or froggy ones (the ducky is just not even considerable).

Oh, and certainly don’t buy two, following the usually smart but often very backfirey rule of getting two of everything useful in the case of loss/soiling/severe attachment. 

(And now that the shipping is up to $10 for these things on Amazon–anyone want to buy the still in its plastic wrap Craig T. Nelson the third?)