CHICAGO Parents need not fear that using a pacifier to soothe a fussing infant will lead to premature weaning from breast-feeding, though rocking the baby may have the same calming effect, Reuters reported on Tuesday. "Although we found no evidence that pacifier use is harmful to breast-feeding, we also detected no beneficial effects on infant crying or fussing," researchers at McGill University in Montreal said. "Nonetheless, the absence of a causal link between pacifier use and early weaning should lead breast-feeding promotion programs and international agencies to reexamine their staunch opposition to pacifiers," study author Michael Kramer wrote in this week's *** Journal of the American Medical Association ***. The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund have discouraged parents from using pacifiers after several studies showed a relationship between pacifiers and early weaning, judged to be when breast-feeding stops before the baby reaches 3 months old. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends mothers breast-feed through the child's first year or longer if possible. The American Medical Association considers breast milk, which contains antibodies and white blood cells that protect against infection, the best source of nutrition for infants. While the need to use a pacifier could be a marker of other breast-feeding difficulties, pacifier use does not cause children to resist breast-feeding, the report said. "This combination of findings leads us to conclude that pacifier use is a marker of breast-feeding difficulties or a reduced motivation to breast-feed, rather than a true cause of early weaning," Kramer wrote.