It’s no secret that Americans are stressed out – Talker Research even found that “stressful” is one of the top words of the year. Could we soon see U.S. adults jumping on the adult pacifier trend?
According to the South China Morning Post, adult pacifiers became a thing in China for stress relief last year, inspired by social media posts. It said some shops were selling more than 2,000 every month. This week, the strange trend made headlines in the U.S.
Buyers were reportedly snapping up the objects, usually saved for babies, as a form of stress relief. However, any “relief” also comes with concerns from healthcare professionals, the South China Morning Post said.
Dr. Browns noted that babies have been known to find objects and stick them in their mouths as a way to satiate their developing sucking reflex for thousands of years. Parents eventually started deliberately fashioning pacifiers and in 1903, Harvey Spencer patented the “Baby Comforter” pacifier in the U.S., per the Suiter and Swantz intellectual property firm.
Pacifiers can help make sure that babies won’t stick something more dangerous in their mouths (or hands and fingers), help soothe them when they are fussy, offer distraction and help them fall asleep, the Mayo Clinic explained. Often, children grow out of the pacifier habit by the time they’re out of the toddler stage, as is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.
That is fortunate, since pacifier use also comes with risks, the Mayo Clinic said. These include pacifier dependence, risk of middle ear infections, dental concerns and breastfeeding disruption. Some research has even indicated that the risks of pacifiers outweigh the benefits.
What happens when adults decide to pick the habit back up? Vice reported last year that “what started as a niche coping tool in China is now inching into global stress culture, one adult-sized binky at a time,” last summer.
There haven’t been many updates on the trend so far in 2026, and adults don’t seem to be going public with a pacifier habit in the U.S.
Around the same time as those reports from the South China Morning Post and Vice, Dr. Ben Winters, an orthodontist and creator of Something Nice oral care brand, told The New York Post that “there is a reason we don’t drink out of baby bottles or suck on pacifiers as adults,” and explained that “it wreaks havoc on swallow and bite patterns.”
Meanwhile, stress ball-like toys such as the Needoh have been trending on social media and in real life. Audacy also reported this week that hacky sack is making a social media-fueled comeback among young adults and teens. Those might work as healthier, and still trendy, stress relievers than pacifiers for grown-ups.
