Results of a new study suggest that heavy pacifier use by infants may contribute to an increased risk of ear infection.

Researchers in Finland recently reported to the journal Pediatrics that children who stopped using pacifiers regularly after 6 months of age had more than a third fewer ear infections than those who continued using them.

Since the group studied is considered small (only 484 children at 14 well-baby clinics), the results are inconclusive. Doctors remind parents however, that restricting pacifier use to bedtime only after the age of 6 months and taking them completely away after ten months of age is a good idea. Medical studies have proven that repeated pacifier use contributes to increased oral fungal infection and tooth decay, not to mention the spread of germs if children share them.

Dr. Jeffrey Keller, an ear, nose and throat specialist at New York Presbyterian Hospital, also an assistant professor of otorhinolaryngology at the New York Weill Cornell Center, called the Finnish study "interesting" and "compelling" as well as one that "offers parents some hope that they have some control over a variable that potentially could reduce the tendency of ear infections in their children."