Baby "thumb pressing"

[Bekb]

I am going out of my mind reading things on the internet regarding what my little one is currently doing, she is using her thumbs a lot to press down on things and then moving her hand round while her thumb is still pressed down, is this normal? Is this we learning what to do with her hands? I have attached a photo to show what I am trying to explain... she seems to have started doing this more regular in the past week or so! Currently waiting for the health visitor to ring me back so I can ask her for advice as well!

[fuglybeatch]

Erm she's probably just trying it out? My dd would circle her feet/ankles constantly at one point, they do weird stuff. What's worrying you so much?

[Bekb]

A few family members have picked up on her doing it so I thought I would just google it see if it "means" or is a sign of anything of us purely just something she fancies doing?! Seem a few posts come up about early signs of autism so my mind has gone into overdrive and I have been panicking.. she's my first baby as well so I'm still learning what's normal.

[WineCheeseSleep]

How old is she? Both of mine have done exactly this, I think it's just them working out how their hands work. She'll move on to something else soon!

[professorvanvonsteinenburg]

It's not a sign of autism....

Or at least not when your child is a baby, a lot of things that are "Sign of autism" are actually normal things for babies to do that are out of place in older children, like schemas, where they line things up by colour is normal until 3 or 4, but a sign of autism at 6 or 7.

[Willis15]

My daughter done this, I googled and was totally freaked. She would do it all the time even pressing it on people when they held her etc. She is now 19 months and doesn't do it anymore. I can't remember when she stopped it. She seems fine so far.

[Bekb]

I've spoken with the health visitor and she says it's normally for her to do things like this! Especially if she has had a reaction from someone whilst doing it she will do it all the more! I feel better now someone has told me it's "normal" worse thing I could have done is google it!

[Mayari11]

Hi there. I was reading the original post and my 8 month old is doing the same thing. Are there any updates you could provide to help me please? I know this post was a long time ago so I wanted to see if anything came of this behavior. Thank you!

[Lauraonline]

Hi just wondering any development as my son is doing this a lot and I am very concerned about autism so any update to help piece of mind or to other way would be grateful so I can stop wondering - thank u

[shazzz1xx]

My daughter did it and I was freaking out but she doesn’t do it anymore she’s 12 month now x

[Lauraonline]

Thank you just good to hear other people’s experiences and trying not to worry too much

[EB86ER21]

So all nine of my mom’s children have done this at some point as babies. Now we are older and starting to have our own children, and so far, all four grandkids have done it as well. My baby is two months and just started doing it.

We just thought it was something weird that is specific to our family, but in my research I’ve found it’s fairly common for babies in general.

Now I want to figure out WHY they do it! Must be a developmental thing. For example, babies go through a developmental phase where they point at things. Don’t know why, we just know that if they don’t start pointing at random things between 7 and 15 months, there is something wrong developmentally.

Very bizarre and interesting. In our family we call it the “thumb thing” 😂 Anyway I want to get to the bottom of this!

By the way, all nine of us kids are “normal” intelligent, social, caring human beings, and so far all our kids are too. So don’t stress if you see your baby do this. I personally believe it is completely normal, and possibly a stage of childhood development. If I find more info, I’ll post again!

[Danielle1989x]

Hey
would you mind giving an update on your little one? Did they outgrow this as my son is now 8 months and he is doing this quite a lot. Especially when feeding or going to sleep he puts his thumb on me and wiggles his hand around or he does it on a blanket etc x

[EB86ER21]

Hey @Danielle1989x My daughter is 1.5 now and hasn’t really done it for a while. She just kind of grew out of it, I guess. I think it’s a weird comfort thing babies do at a certain age and then grow out of. Hope you and yours are well!

[Danielle1989x]

@EB86ER21 thanks for replying
is everything all OK with her development etc? I worried for autism as he does have a few different quirks about him but so young to tell!

[Danielle1989x]

@Bekb Hey. Any update at all? X

[EB86ER21]

@Danielle1989x She is completely neurotypical, which is a relief to me because I was worried about Autism and other mental health issues as well, but she is fine!

[Danielle1989x]

@EB86ER21 oh brilliant. Glad to here
what other things made you concerned?
my son has many quirks that’s made me worry. Another is hand twirling and feet!!