Sending your baby off to a daycare might feel like the first vacation you’ve had in months, but you’ll need to prepare them for it first.
It’s crucial that you properly organize your child’s belongings, as daycares often have staff members handling four to five infants at any given time. It’s understandable that they may occasionally lose track of who owns what – at least, without some assistance.
Labeling your baby’s pacifiers can mitigate the chance of that happening. As a bonus, you can go about doing this in a lot of fun, creative ways.
You can’t go wrong with scribbling your toddler’s name with a permanent marker, but how well that turns out heavily depends on your penmanship. Engravings could also be done for better aesthetic appeal, but that method may be impractical or too pricy for now.
Lastly, you could also make use of pacifier straps. These accessories make it easier for your child to keep hold of their pacifiers, but be mindful of beaded chains – they could snap and end up a choking hazard for your child!
You can’t go wrong with labeling your baby’s pacifiers – especially for their trip to the daycare! It’s a practical precaution (no more mix-ups!) as well as a sanitary one (less contamination risk!)
How to Label Pacifiers For Daycare
1. Permanent Markers
If you’re going for function over form, that permanent marker in your drawer might be all you need to get by here!
Scribbling your child’s initials on their pacifier won’t take more than a second, but can potentially spare anyone handling your infant’s belongings a lot of time and confusion.
Pros
As we mentioned earlier, markers are easy to find in just about any desk drawer – and if they aren’t available, they’re cheap and easy to pick up at any office supply store. They’re quick and simple to use and can be just the stopgap you need to effectively label your baby’s pacifier.
Cons
It’s an effective stopgap, but not a very aesthetic choice – writing on such a small, uneven surface with a permanent marker can be a challenge. You also need to be sure that your marker of choice doesn’t have any toxic components your infant might accidentally ingest.
Tips
We’d recommend that you stencil or otherwise outline what you want to write on the pacifier first. Doing so lets you estimate your design along with how much space you’ll need, minimizing the risk of mistakes or other deviations from what you had in mind.
2. Engravings
Pros
The nice thing about personalized pacifier orders is just how clean and hassle-free the process is. You get exactly what you pay for, and it’ll be perfectly safe and presentable. No need to worry about sloppy penmanship or potentially-fragile components here!
Cons
Unfortunately, that same technical precision and made-to-order format can also make it feel impersonal, leaving parents rather detached from the supposed childhood memento.
Think of it this way: writing it down yourself gives it a personal touch, frantic handwriting and all. The same goes for hand-assembled/knitted pacifier leashes. The process is an experience in itself, but you don’t get that for premade pacifier labels. All you get is what you pay for.
While you do get your money’s worth, we wouldn’t entrust our memories to this alone. Make use of other pacifier labeling methods to complement this one – you don’t want any regrets!
Personalized pacifiers aren’t that expensive, but in this case, that might actually work against you. Most service providers here are small-time – with some even home-based. A set of three pacifiers, as seen above, may run you about $20. It’s just not practical to send something that (relatively) low-cost across towns or even states!
Be ready to wait for a good, long while for your infant’s personalized pacifiers to be delivered!
3. Pacifier Leashes / Clips / Holders / Straps
Pacifier leashes can come in all sorts of variations. Some of them might come in block or bead chains, while others could even be made entirely from crochet!
Pros
The really nice thing about pacifier leashes is that the label also doubles as a snazzy security strap, letting you loop that around your baby’s body for safekeeping.
This also allows for some unique opportunities for you to customize your strap’s design – options other label methods would lack. You could even make your own at home!
We’re pretty partial to bead bracelet-style pacifier leashes ourselves, as your baby can play with them like rattlers whenever they might be bored. They make for amazing distractions during diaper changes.
Cons
If you’re designing them yourself, this labeling method takes by far the most time and effort to do. You might not even have all the bits you need ready, which could necessitate a few store trips.
It’s also important to keep the type of strap in mind. Fabric or crochet ones should be perfectly safe, but if you’ve got a beaded pacifier leash make sure that it’s well-maintained. If it snaps from strain, the individual beads could end up a choking hazard for your child in the daycare!
As an aside, crochet pacifier leashes also run the risk of being absolutely coated in your baby’s food, milk, or even their own drool. Be ready to roll your sleeves up when they need cleaning!
Why is Labeling Pacifiers Important?
Mitigates Risk of Cross-use in the Daycare
Sharing pacifiers is a huge contagion risk, readily transmitting germs between infants. Labeled pacifiers significantly reduce the risk of these sorts of mix-ups, improving general sanitation.
This is especially important while out in the daycare – you can’t oversee your child there! You’ll have to trust that the daycare staff can do their job, but it couldn’t hurt to make their jobs easier!
Minimizes Chance for Mix-ups at Home (Especially for Houses with lots of Babies!)
Babies can get pretty attached to their binkies, bawling their little eyes out whenever you pull them away. Pacifiers can come in different shapes and sizes, and your baby might have preferences.
One of your little ones might get the wrong pacifier and hate it – or worse, insist on keeping it! The latter happening means that the pacifier’s real owner will end up deprived.
Labeled pacifiers are so much easier to track, no matter where they go. This is important for families with lots of little ones going about… which we’ll cover in depth in the next subheading.
Properly Elevates these Keepsakes into Childhood Mementos
Your child’s first pacifier is a huge part of their personal history. You don’t want to risk taking that for granted, so put in the effort to preserve that memory – even this early on. It always pays to know what belongs to whom in the household.
Labels help you track just that while reducing the chance of things getting lost. These things are precious memories, so be sure to give them the importance they deserve.
Mementos are easier to organize when you know exactly who they belong to!
Final Thoughts
It’s crucial to label pacifiers before taking your baby to the daycare, as mix-ups are almost guaranteed to happen otherwise. You can go about it in a lot of ways, depending on your current needs or preferences, but any label is better than no label at all!
