Sugar tit is a folk name for a baby
pacifier
A pacifier is a rubber, plastic, or silicone nipple substitute given to an infant to suckle upon between feedings to quiet its distress by satisfying the need to suck when it does not need to eat. Pacifiers normally have three parts: an elongate ...
, or dummy, that was once commonly made and used in North America and Britain. It was made by placing a spoonful of
sugar, or honey, in a small patch of clean cloth, then gathering the cloth around the sugar and twisting it to form a bulb. The bulb was then secured by twine or a rubber band. The baby's saliva would slowly dissolve the sugar in the bulb.
In use the exposed outfolded fabric could give the appearance of a
flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...
in the baby's mouth. David Ransel quotes a Russian study by Dr. N. E. Kushev while discussing a similar home-made cloth-and-food pacifier called a ''soska'' (со́ска); there, the term "flower", as used colloquially by mothers, refers to a bloom of mold in the child's mouth caused by decay of the contents.
As early as 1802 a German physician, Christian Struve, described the sugar tit as "one of the most revolting customs".
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sugar Tit
Infant feeding
Sugar
Children's health