What are the pros and cons of pacifiers?

Few if any cons: In general infants are pacified by sucking and a pacifier can really help infants that are calmed by sucking, in my experience pacifiers rarely interfere with breast feeding and since they can easily be removed when needed are preferable to sucking on fingers/thumbs.

Some of both: Pacifiers seem to cause a great deal of angst in some, and be a life saver for others. Babies like to suck, and some really like to suck. For those, unless you want to feed them every 30 min or so, pacifiers are a great good. There is also clear evidence they prevent sids. There is concern that pacifiers given too early can hinder breast feeding, and weaning off the pacifier later is not fun.