Thumb Sucking at 12 weeks

[meganw]

Hello all,

My lovely DD1 has started sucking her thumb in quite a serious way. Every time she goes down for a nap or for the night I find her with her thumb in her mouth and stroking her nose 5 minutes later! She settles herself this way and has always been a good sleeper. My DP is quite opposed to thumb sucking and likes to pull her thumb out of her mouth; I don't have any strong opinions, I kind of feel that if it comforts and soothes then it isn't a big problem at the moment. We've tried a dummy instead but she isn't keen at all. Am I making a rod for my own back to try and stop her sucking her thumb later? Should I be discouraging now? Will it have any real effects on her teeth?

Tricky one this ....I have had 2 dummy ds's and a thumb ds. It is great that the thumby can resettle and stuff by themselves and you wont have to be crawling around under the cot to find the (sometimes only!) dummy in the middle of the night but.........

.....Dummies have been long gone in our house but thumb is still around !!! thumb ds never took to a dummy and would spit it out of his mouth and because he was ds2 with 16 months apart ...it was easier for me !!

So not much help really.....but just remember you will get lots of people with lots of different views.....

Good luck !

Dn was a thumb sucker and they were advised by a dentist friend to substitute a dummy straightaway on the grounds that you can take a dummy away. It's a bit more tricky to remove the thumb

DH is still a thumbsucker and his teeth have always been fine... I was delighted when DD started to suck her thumb because it meant she was excellent at self-soothing. DS never did it and took much (much) longer to learn to self-settle. And I mean months and months.

I'm with your husband ,I can't abide thumb sucking . Both mine had dummies and we used them sparingly and got rid of them fairly quickly with no hassle . As others have said its a bit difficult to take a thumb away .

Both of mine rejected the dummy at a young age, ds for his thumb, dd for her finger. It never bothered me and in many ways it is easier - no sterilising, no dropping it out of the buggy, cot etc, they can comfort themselves when they need it. One of my toddler books says that most children stop by themselves by the age of 3.5 and even though I thought he never would, ds stopped not long after he turned 3 (dd only 20 mths so time will tell). Our dentist said it was only a worry with the teeth if they are still sucking it when big teeth come through.

If it comforts her and helps her sleep through the night, personally I wouldn't try to change it, lots of children suck their thumbs and it doesn't do them any harm. It's a natural thing, they have scans of babies sucking their thumb in the womb! If she is still sucking by the age of 4, that's a different story...I remember my mum sending me to bed with a woolly glove on! Good luck with whatever you choose

My independent self motivated DD was a thumb sucker and stopped herself when she wanted to at around three. She has an acute sense of what she needs both emotionally and physically so I would be cautious of limiting your DD's ability to decide for herself how she should settle.

I'd be interested why those who are so opposed to thumbsucking 'can't abide it'. That seems a stronger reaction than would be merited by any possible impact on the child's future dentistry bills (and in any case the majority of thumbsucking has no impact on tooth development, it's just something dentists like to say).

I think we've decided to just let her get on with it. To stop her we'd have to stand over her cot for every nap and and every night time sleep which just isn't feasible. Once she's in a deep sleep it seems to drop out of her mouth and if we remove it she cries and gets upset, which doesn't seem worth it to me. While I've got a 12 hour night sleeper I don't think I want to rock the boat!
She has a sucking instinct that a dummy will not satisfy for whatever reason.

zuleika my POV has nothing to do with dentistry I just don't like to see children with their thumbs stuck in their mouths , especially older children . I was a cub leader for a number of years and it was amazing how many 8 yr olds natural reaction to being asked to concentrate on something was to stick their thumb in their mouth ! Everyone has their 'pet hates' and that's one of mine .

Oh I understand that - I just don't understand why!

I'm glad that you have decided to leave her to it, I don't think you really have any hope of stopping a determined thumb sucker when they are babies. All three of my dc had dummies from birth, but by 8 - 12 weeks they all rejected dummies - spat them out in favour of their thumbs. Basically as soon as they had the requisite motor skills to control their thumbs and put them in the mouth that was that. Once they were two or 3 it really became a bed time thing and I made it clear that they should not suck them during the day. Things that helped were if I saw them thumb sucking I might say 'oh I see you are tired, why don't you go up to bed for a nap' which usually had the effect of the thumb coming straight out! DH and I also made a point of never ever understanding a word that was said to us if the thumb was in. DD1 is now 8, I don't think I have seen her suck her thumb for some years. DD2 is now 6. Occasionally she sucks it when going to sleep, but rarely (haven't seen her with thumb in for some time), DS is 3, he always sucks his thumb when going to sleep, and also if tired and when he watches tv. I am not worried as from my experience with the girls I know it will reduce in time.