Babies denied a dummy by nurseries 'are at greater risk of cot death'

Staff who believe pacifiers are chiefly used by "inadequate" mothers are ignoring medical advice which says they can halve the rate of cot death.

Researchers found most nursery workers are either unaware of or "confused" about studies suggesting that dummies can have life-saving benefits.

Department of Health advice - updated earlier this year - urges parents to consider giving dummies whenever they settle a baby to sleep.

The guidance was issued after research suggested dummies halve cot deaths and may cut the risk by as much as 90 per cent.

Yet academics from Wolverhampton University detected widespread aversion to dummies among staff at private nurseries and state children's centres.

Many preferred to use them as a calming measure only, and as a last resort, amid concerns that they delayed speech development.

The annual conference of the British Educational Research Association will be told today that 37 per cent of nursery workers linked dummies with "poor or inadequate mothering strategies".

The call for greater use of pacifiers such as dummies in nurseries is certain to prove controversial, however.

They have long stirred strong feelings in parents and while today's research claims there is nothing definitive to say they cause speech problems, dummies may be a "risk factor" in delayed language.

Dr Judy Whitmarsh, from Wolverhampton's School of Education, said: "Dummies are often demonised by health professionals yet there are potential benefits during the child's first year.

"It is when dummies are used as a plug to 'shut a child up' that they become harmful."

She told the conference that dummy use has been linked to glue ear and malformed teeth, but the evidence is not conclusive.

She added: "Early years practitioners appear unaware of the emerging evidence that pacifier use may offer babies some protection from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

"For some managers, more directly opposed to pacifiers, this will necessitate a change of belief as well as changes to practice; this may be uncomfortable and create personal and professional tensions.

"There is a culture which is against dummy use, a culture in our society which says dummy use is bad parenting."

Dr Whitmarsh, who surveyed eight nursery managers and 75 staff members last autumn, found that no nursery managers had directly consulted research findings to inform their policies on pacifiers.

Most relied on their own experience, the media and family and friends.

l.clark@dailymail.co.uk