The Air Force Safety Center is a Field Operating Agency with headquarters at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
The Finnish researchers are unsure why the use of a pacifier might lead to an ear infection, but theorized it may have something to do with the change in pressure equilibrium inside the ear caused by the sucking.
Kuhl and colleagues used a high-tech pacifier that was connected to a computer that measured infants' reactions to sounds. The study included 80 infants who were, on average, about 30 hours old and from Tacoma, Wash., and Stockholm, Sweden. They listened to vowel sounds in their native language and a foreign tongue while sucking on the pacifier.