My son this week is saying goodbye to a trusted friend –- his pacifier.

For two-and-a-half years, his “tete,” as we call it in the Vasquez household, has guided him through some difficult times. It has been there every night, without fail, to help him fall asleep. It helped him nurse some bad colds and his first earache. It magically appeared at those critical moments to fend off temper tantrums. It eventually multiplied to three at night in his crib so that he would find one in the dark with ease.

My husband and I knew this day would come, and in many ways, it’s just as hard for us to let the pacifier go. In the short term, it means no easy fixes to helping calm down our son. It means that for the past three nights, I’ve had to lie on the floor in my son’s room to help comfort him to sleep. It means my son now thinks his room is too dark at night.

His pacifier was his security blanket.

If you’re a parent, you typically fall into one of two camps: Pro-pacifier or Anti-pacifier. There’s much debate about what a pacifier does to a child’s teeth and speech. Some consider it cruel, likening it to popping a plug in a kid’s mouth.

But there’s one area on which many of us can agree: Those crystal encrusted “bling” pacifiers are a bad idea. The public’s enamor with everything celebrity has parents putting potentially hazardous pacifiers in the mouths of their little ones. Federal investigators are looking into the product, fearing the tiny crystals can come loose and put babies at risk of choking and suffocation, according to a story in Sunday’s Sun-Sentinel.

Fortunately for my son, his pacifier wasn’t a fashion statement. It was his friend.

What's your take on pacifiers? Tell us by posting a comment.