How can I reuse or recycle babies’ dummies?

DummiesWe’ve had an email from Gary, saying:

I have found a few leftover babies’ dummies and dummy cases whilst doing some tidying in the kitchen.

Rather than throwing them away I wondered if there was any way to reuse or recycle them.

Good suggestion, Gary. There must be millions of those things lying around in households around the country.

The only thing I can think to do with them is to give them to teenagers who want “ironic” jewellery :) But any other suggestions?

DOWNTIME INFO: Just in case anyone noticed, we’ve been down for six hours this afternoon – our entire (huge) hosting service went down because of the floods. Everything looks to be up again now and hopefully they’ve got giant sandbags on standby for next time.

(Photo by xymonau)

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17 Responses to “How can I reuse or recycle babies’ dummies?”


  1. Trish says:

    you might call around to pediatrician’s offices. *IF* they can be sterilized, they might know of a place you can send them.

  2. Send them to a charity shop?

    I wonder if there’s a company who sends them to people in developing countries?

  3. Why would anyone in a developing country want this mother child separating device? Only westerners who are so alienated and filled with shame of anything natural and vulnerable like breastfeeding would think such an invention had any merit. Create an organisation which collects them and make a huge work of art protesting their very existence.

    • V says:

      Yes, well, we can’t all breastfeed. Maybe we should just let our children starve…

    • Nicola says:

      I take great offence to your comment – I have four children and have breast fed all of them for over 12 months each .
      One of my children had a dummy for various reasons which had NOTHING to do with not wanting to breast feed, infact she was the easiest to establish breast feeding.
      You can not just presume people give dummy’s for the reasons you have stated and you can not try and inflict your disgusting views on everyone else .
      There are many reasons why dummy’s have been found to be benificial to baby’s – perhaps you could do some research on them before posting such a comment .

    • Christan says:

      I breastfed my baby and still used pacifiers. Actually was told to use them by the doctor because my baby girl had colic really bad. She would sit and constantly swallow air and the only way to stop it was to give her a pacifier. As she grew out of that stage I handed her the pacy one day and she gave it right back and never took it again. Its also a great way to get them to take some medicine when they cant keep anything down.

  4. Rose says:

    Goodness, a few very anti-dummy comments here. Current advice in the UK says all babies should be settled to sleep with dummies to prevent SIDS so I guess there will be a whole lot more of them about now! I would probably give them to older children to play with for their dolls, most can be sterilised but I imagine people might feel a bit odd about having a used dummy for their baby.

  5. Mea says:

    Wow, I definately had to read this post just to find out what a baby dummy was…here in the states we call them pacifiers.

    What about giving some to dog kennels? Quite a few puppies like sucking or chewing on these (my shih-tzu did, even when he was no longer a puppy.)

  6. Ashleigh says:

    I wouldn’t recommend giving them to teenagers, as they use them when they do drugs like ecstasy, because it makes you grind your teeth, the pacifier makes your mouth hurt less.

  7. Stacey says:

    We have a farm nearby that takes unwanted dummies for the piglets that won’t/can’t suckle on there mummy. Great place to go with the kids when you are getting them to give there dummy up. Makes them feel really good about giving them away.

  8. Olia says:

    They can be used to punch little halls in a fine soil to plant seeds one inch deep! :)
    Crafters working with clay can also make indentations in clay with them.
    Those round rubber parts can be used as bulbs or christmas lights in a doll house or as vases, if placed upside down.
    Middle part, if it comes off, can be used as a belt buckle.
    The ring with plastic can work as tiny towel hanger in a doll house.
    Couple of those rings will make nice holders for a doll’s bag.

  9. Skye says:

    Here’s an idea http://www.flickr.com/photos/hirosan/323470308/

    Another thing is, does anyone have so many dummies in their household… ;)

  10. Karmae says:

    The nipple bit can be sliced up and put up your nostril to make a strange “broken nose” effect for Hallow’een/fancy dress events.
    (This is an old theatre trick)

  11. Francisco says:

    What on earth should we do to recycle pacifiers (baby dummy)? I suspect that nobody really knows where to put it when they get old. Any one did any estimation of how many are dumped anywhere? Worried cheers.

  12. Joanne says:

    Perhaps stick a few in a bottle/ old container and make a shaker/ rattle for your baby to learn hand and arm control. It also makes a different sound to rice or beans, so you can have a range of different frequency rattles (good for auditory development too).

    The handle is usually strong, so sew, glue or attach an item to the teat to hang the item up, you can also make a baby mobile this way…

    Letting the silicone teats soak in food colouring will turn them different colours, to add some colour to a recycled mobile for above the change mat.

    make a cool bath toy by stringing the teats together firmly or use non toxic glue and glue them to an old hanger/ruler. put the contraption under water and you can shoot water out the teats by squeezing or pushing them like buttons. great for fine motor control…

  13. Mayte says:

    Until my blog is in Spanish, you coan see a idea to recycle the pacifier (“Chupetes” in Spanish). I made a rack with some of them. You could see it in may blog: http://missversiones.blogspot.com.es/



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