Fresh home from the hospital, the pictures of proud new parents often show them beaming, holding the baby on the front stoop of the child's new home.

And often, that little bitty baby is calmly sucking on a pacifier.

But for years, parents have struggled with the pros and cons of using a pacifier, which helps satisfy a strong sucking reflex that many babies have when they are first born.

"Around 3 months, the action of sucking becomes more conscious and less of a reflex," said Kimberly Parker, clinical program manager for early childhood wellness at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. "It remains a soothing practice that babies often can be witnessed doing in their sleep."

The sucking action is a way to soothe themselves, she said in an e-mail to The Times, and pacifiers provide something for the baby to suck on.

"Some researchers also believe that the sucking action actually releases ‘feel-good' chemicals in the brain that make the baby feel calm and happy and can decrease stress," she added.

Some children are instantly soothed by them; others don't seem to care one way or another.

For mothers who breast-feed, a child may have trouble learning to nurse properly if he or she is given a pacifier too soon, according to research from the Mayo Clinic. Parker recommended mothers wait four to six weeks before introducing a pacifier.

Toddlers may also become too dependent on a pacifier, crying in the middle of the night if it falls out of their mouth. And pacifiers used by children who are learning to talk may impede that development.

"It is very hard to talk with a pacifier in the mouth," said Parker. "If a child is attempting to learn and mimic speech patterns, the pacifier can interfere and the development of sounds and words may be slowed. This is especially important after 12 months of age when speech development rapidly increases."

And then, there's the kids who find a particular type of pacifier and refuse any other.

"They liked the brown nipple and you can't find them everywhere," said Amber Tomanguilla of her two kids, Isaac, 3 1/2, and Sarah, 2 1/2. "I literally cannot go to the store and buy some more. It was a little stressful."

The Lilburn resident said her 13-month-old never took to a pacifier, so when it came time to get rid of them, the baby of the family was already on board. Usually, children who use a pacifier outgrow them, or are forced by their parents to move on, between the ages of 2 and 3.

Some parents may think the soothing benefits of a pacifier outweigh the costs.

According to the Mayo Clinic, pacifiers can help reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. And they can provide a temporary distraction for a hungry baby while the mother finds a place to nurse.

Or, for Gainesville resident Tina Foreman, it is something in the child's mouth that she can keep track of.

"I didn't have any problem with them ... I personally preferred that over thumb sucking," she said. "I think, just with so many germs (on thumbs)."

She added that her father is a former speech therapist, and as long as the pacifier was an "orthodontic" type of pacifier, she said it was OK with her.

Gainesville orthodontist Ron Wilson of Wilson Orthodontics said as long as the child isn't still using a pacifier when adult teeth start coming in, usually around age 6, a pacifier shouldn't have an effect on the need for braces later in life.

"It makes no difference whatsoever," said Wilson. "The only thing it would affect, from a dental standpoint, would be if the pacifier is used by age 6 and above, or if the pacifier turned into a thumb or finger habit. It would have some effect on the teeth later on in life.

Parker recommended trying to wean your child off the pacifier by about 12 months of age, when they should start to learn to self-soothe by themselves.

"As your child gets older, the negative impacts of a pacifier may begin to outweigh he benefit and you should consider helping your child to find other ways to self soothe," she said.

The Mayo Clinic recommends parents inspect pacifiers often for broken plastic or other signs of wear.

But bottom line, using a pacifier is a cue parents should take from their baby.

For Tomanguilla, the decision to have her children use the pacifier wasn't that difficult. It was letting go of it that was hard.

"Every time (the pacifiers) got holes in them, they would tell me they were broken - we needed new ones," she said. "My whole thought was, I would rather have something I can take away than for them to get hoked on their fingers, because you can't take the fingers away."