SJ’s latest discovery has been her thumb. I was a thumb sucker once. I remember my best friend being a nail biter, me being a thumb sucker, and our parents being desperate to get us to drop our habits. This soothing ritual lasted until I was preschool age, but I have heard many stories of children being dependant on this method of comfort well beyond kindergarten. I admit to panicking at the sight of SJ with her thumb in her mouth. All I could think about was years of struggling to get her to stop, endless orthodontic problems, and everyone else’s criticism on the subject. But in the midst of all that I am looking at a cute little baby, a baby that seems peaceful and content. That’s when I pulled out my stash of books about babies and hit google to find out as much as I could on the subject. Every Doctor, author, and expert said the same thing, “stop worrying and let your baby indulge herself.”*. Apparently I am not the only mother who has had these concerns.
Not only is it suggested that baby thumb sucking is okay there are even some advantages to using a thumb over a pacifier.
1. Baby thumbs never roll under furniture or a shelf at the store to party with dust bunnies and dead roaches.
2. Thumbs are readily available to a baby when they are in the back seat and you can’t reach them while driving.
3. Thumb sucking babies sleep through the night better.
4. On a shallow note, it’s cuter than the big green silicone Soothie that I am used to.
5. It makes for a happy and independent baby.
After all the research that I’ve done about whether it’s okay for my baby to suck her thumb, the answer was a resounding yes! The only time for concern is if a baby is sucking instead of eating when they are hungry, which if you have seen my 15 pounder this is not a problem. Also if the child is thumb sucking in the formative years of permanent teeth. This scares me a lot, but I am going to go with the experts advice which is to calm down and cross that bridge when/if we get to it.
I may be jumping the gun on labeling my little one when she is still in the experimental stage, but we’ll see.
Any other former thumb suckers out there, or maybe parents of one? Advice and expertise welcome.
*The quote is from What To Expect The First Year
My Katie Bug is a thumb sucker, too. I love that she is able to soothe herself when she is tired or upset. We're praying that she'll outgrow the need to suck her thumb before she goes to school, though!
I've come to realize that babies are going to do what soothes them the best. What a great list of advantages! I'd prefer the thumb over a pacifier during the night ~ you don't have to get up to help her find it somewhere in the crib!!
Before kids, I said that mine wouldn't take a pacifier OR suck their thumb! HA HA! Both of mine ended up taking pacifiers. They preferred different types from each other, but both would only take specific ones. I will never forget the time when Chris left Elizabeth & me at the lake ~ & about an hour down the road, he realized that her pacifier (the last one left of the type that she liked) was in his pocket! Ugh! If she had sucked her thumb, obviously that wouldn't have been a problem!
Caleb sucks his thumb and I'm not too worried about it. I figure if he still doing it by grade school, peer pressure will get him to quit. And if it doesn't, Shawn and I will start making fun of him 😉
Lydia has sucked her thumb since she was about 5mo. She is now 4.5. And it was my husband's worst nightmare. I honestly liked it for all the reasons you mentioned. Even when she was older and crying I could say, "SUCK YOUR THUMB." and she'd calm down. (Great parenting technique, I'm sure.)
We went to the dentist for the first time a few weeks ago. And her teeth are moved a little from it. But after the dentist told her to stop, we made a little chart at home. It's been 28 days and she hasn't sucked her thumb once. With NO problems.
I say wait it out and let the dentist handle it! 😉
Amanda sucked her thumb. She refused to take a pacifier. on the plus side of it she quit on her own when she was 6 months old. so maybe you will get lucky and you will have nothing to fight 🙂
Oh this makes me feel so much better knowing that I am not alone. Thank you all for your comments.