Sugar tit is a folk name for a baby pacifier

Pacifier

A pacifier is a rubber, plastic, or silicone nipple given to an infant or other young child to suck upon. In its standard appearance it has a teat, mouth shield, and handle...

, or dummy, that was once commonly made and used in North America and Britain. It was made by placing a spoonful of sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

, 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.

In use the exposed outfolded fabric could give the appearance of a flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

 in the baby's mouth. The baby's saliva would slowly dissolve the sugar in the bulb.

As early as 1802 a German physician, Christian Struve, described the sugar tit as "one of the most revolting customs".

Due to widespread availability of inexpensive commercial baby pacifiers and the unpopularity of feeding babies "empty calorie

Empty calorie

Empty calories, in casual dietary terminology, are a measurement of the energy present in high-energy foods with poor nutritional profiles, with most of the energy typically coming from processed carbohydrates, fats, or ethanol...

s", as well as the damage caused to emerging teeth, sugar tits are a rarity today, at least in the US and UK.