Son Likes Putting Objects In/near Eye

I wouldn't be concerned about putting his pacifier against the corner of his eye or rubbing it on the rim. The pacifier is soft and edges are rounded and won't injure him. Your son will not purposely hurt himself.

If your husband is concerned about germs, give him a clean pacifier. However, the more we allow our children to be exposed to germs the healthier they will be. I'd only be concerned if he or another member of the family has a cold. You don't want to introduce cold germs into the eye. However, even then, I wouldn't be overly concerned. We do introduce germs into our eyes every time we rub them with our hands.
Rubbing his eyes with his pacifier is really not much different then rubbing them with his hands.

This is normal behavior.

I might be a little worried that he is going to introduce germs into his eye from the pacifier and cause conjunctivitis, or accidentally scratch his cornea. Is that why your hubby is worried about it as far as it being the pacifier, and thinks using something else is better? Or is he worried your son might have OCD or something?

My daughter has her teddy bear as her "lovey" and often likes to hold the teddy's arm across her nose and smell it. She will also flip the hands back and forth (teddy is very soft and floppy). My cousin has 4 sons, and when they were that age, 1 liked to rub and tug on his dad's ear lobe and 1 liked to feel the veins on the back of his dad's hand and rub them back and forth with his finger. Just goes to show that kids develop all kinds of quirky self-soothing behaviors and it's all normal.

Sounds like he's just tired and needs to go to bed. I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you're really concerned, try weaning him off the pacifier. My son has transitioned from the pacifier to a security blanket and he rubs that in his eyes whenever he gets tired. We then know it's time for bed and put him to bed at the first sign of it.

I thought you were worried about the possibilitiy in the future of him putting other objects in his eye, i.e. pencil, needle, etc. If it is just kind of landing there don't worry and like one poster said are you worried about ocd or something (hard to tell at that time-but who knows) and I think if you are really worried about something else dangerous going there, then yes you better make a big deal out of it. He might itch at the end of the day ( I rub my eyes when I am tired and they get kind of itchy),

I have been putting objects in my eye since I was a baby and I do it more frequently when I am tired. I don't think its normal and I am trying to research the behavior. Research oculo-digital.