Toddler sucking fingers

[Lala29]

My 20 month old daughter has always sucked her fingers since just a few weeks old. She never took a dummy. Now her fingers are almost constantly in her mouth. I worry about her teeth, but also noticed recently that her fingernails on the 2 fingers she sucks are really distorted and she has white skin bits (like when you have wet shoes on) around those fingers.

Is there anything I can do about this? She mostly takes fingers out if we remind her, but they are then straight back in within seconds.

[thegirliesmam]

Watching with interest, my 16mth dd sucks her ring and middle finger to sleep and has the same issues with skin and nails. Any mums of older ones managed to crack the habit?!

[Lala29]

Anyone???

[BadRoly]

Dc4 did this right up until one of his fingers got infected at about 2 and he couldn't suck it. It was awful at the time as he couldn't sleep as every time he got to that dozy stage he'd suck his finger and wake himself up with the pain .

So we gave him a dummy and we are now battling to ditch that at just 4

[FadBook]

Watching with interest too. Dd has a dummy only for naps or bedtime - fingers normally in mouth in between.

I've always assumed her teeth hurt (she's always suffered with teething)

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

i started a similar thread yesterday
dd2 is 2.7 and has always sucked 2 fingers, the nails of which seem a bit malformed.
she now has two sores/blisters on one finger, so I have had to cover these with a plaster to allow them to heal. she now can't suck, and so can't sleep. it is torture for us both (MNing from her bedside) i hope either so learns to do without, or the blisters heal very, very soon!

[BadRoly]

CharlotteBronteSaurus - that is exactly what happened with dc4, a huge blister on one of the fingers that the GP said was impetigo and sent dc4 home with antibiotics and we succumbed to the dummy after the first night

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

jeez, it's a bummer, isn't it?
maybe I should try a dummy again? I kept trying to force one on her until she was about 6mo but to no avail
but the thought of getting up to re-plug like we had to with dd1 ...

[bigbuttons]

my 7 year old still sucks her fingers when she is tired. I tried all sorts of stuff, nothing worked. She has distorted her front teeth very slightly.
I gave up, life's too short.

[Lala29]

Oh dear... None if this very encouraging then! Pretty sure dummy at this age won't work. We tried for a while when she was much younger, but she just spat it out and put fingers in instead. Charlotte ill look out for your thread

Is there no stuff you can put on their fingers? I would really hate for her fingers to get infected and her teeth deformed. She seems to be getting more reliant on them, rather than less with age!

[FaddyPeony]

I've a 17-month old sucker of finger. Really not sure what to do about it tbh. I sucked my finger too when I was small. Am going to start putting Lansinoh (nipple ointment) on her finger as part of a pre-bed routine. Dunno if it will help but it can't hurt!

[no1childminder]

Look at ScratchSleeves.co.uk, they may help :-)

[iclaudius]

I love finger suckers!!!

1. Looks sweet
   
2. Always there
   

Am I odd?? I adore that my 16 month old does it! My 10 year old swapped from two fingers to a thumb at 8

I love it - so soothing for them