Thumb suckers - what were yours like at the very start?

[Listzilla]

DS is 9 weeks and has mixed feelings about his dodi. Sometimes he loves it and will suck on it ferociously, the rest of the time if you put it in his mouth he'll make a disgusted face and spit it back at you. He's been like that since the very start in the hospital, when they gave him one to try and encourage him to suck. It's only when he's about to fall asleep that he'll accept it. If he's upset and crying there's no way he'll take it.

But he does like to suck on his hands. For the last couple of weeks, if he manages to get a hand near his mouth, he'll lick or suck it and be delighted with himself. If he's crying you can stop him by moving his hand to his mouth (assuming he'll let you!). And sometimes at night I'll hear him mooching, and then the suck-suck-suck noise, and then he'll go quiet again. But it's a bit hit and miss, so I'm spending from 3 till 6:30 every morning reaching into the cot every now and again to put the flipping dodi back in.

It sounds like he's going to turn into a thumb sucker, doesn't it? Please tell me he is, I hate bloody dodies and spend months on end wishing we'd never introduced DD to one because she didn't learn to put it in herself at night till she was close to 18 months. I can't do this for another 16 months, I'm exhausted!

Try reading the no cry sleep solution book, it really helped us to get dd2 + ds to self soothe, esp putting a finger under the chin to replace milk. It meant that neither of them needed dummies or thumbs, until dd2 taught herself to thumb suck last year when she was 4 and we were incentiving dd1 to stop thumb sucking (grrr):

Thanks, I'll give it a go. It's such a pain waking up so much for this, considering he doesn't need to be fed at night!

MIne were both thumb suckers from being in the womb. SCBU tried a dummy for DD1 but with no luck, and DD2 took it for one night and never again. They still both suck at night time, at 2 and 5.

Wow this is interesting as my dd is 9 weeks and we have a similiar issue except shes using boob instead of dummy. Shes constantly stirring in the night and i have to feed her back to sleep its driving me mad cos its making me sore and shes not actually feeding. I tried a dummy and she spat it the width of my bed!!

My dd1 had a dummy but she had bad colic and i ditched it at 2yrs. I hate them but for Dd1 it served us well. Dd2 is content and happy but just has to suck to soothe herself to sleep. I sucked my fingers til i was 11 and im loathe to let dd2 become a thumb sucker as my teeth were atrocious and i successfully got rid of dd's dummy with no ill effects. Im watching this with interest now as i have mixed feelings about both.

Mine was also sucking her thumb at the 20 week scan (current one that's still in the womb was too). DD was sucking the edge of her blanket in the hospital. We swaddled her with her hands by her face to help her find it and she was finding it herself within a few weeks. She refused a dummy and needed to suck to get to sleep so often had our little fingers in her mouth for the first few weeks. Once she was able to breastfeed properly (took 5 weeks) she used that to get to sleep more and more.

My dgs has thumbsucked since birth and at three still does it a lot.We seem to be having a little success now by telling him the Easter Bunny sucked his thumb and that is why he has long front teeth!

I assume a dodie is a dummy.

None of mine were given a dummy but my second one sucked his thumb from just a few weeks old.

I never gave it much thought. However dentists do not like thumb sucking and I have been told many times I should have been given a dummy. He is 8 and half now and I have only just managed to get him to stop sucking it. TBH it was starting to cause problems with his teeth and jaw.

from about 20 weeks (scan picture) dd is almost 8 and is still sucking her thumb it drives us mad.

My ds is a thumb sucker. I think that he got the hang of it around about eight weeks or so. It wasn't something we encouraged or discouraged, but it certainly helped him to self settle. As a thumb sucker myself it just seemed very natural to me.

dd has never sucked her thumb, and was a total pain to get settled (hours of jiggling required when she was tiny) we did try a dummy in the end (I really don't like them) and she was totally uninterested.

I think that they either do or they don't thumb/finger suck.

DD wouldn't take to a dummy at all. She started sucking her thumb at nine weeks and stopped suddenly at age six. I don't know why, but she stopped just like that.