17 Month Old will only sleep if he sucks my finger!

[kel41]

Help!!!!!

My son would never suck a dummy or his own finger and since birth has only fallen asleep if he can suck my finger! This was fine before the arrival of teeth but now my fingers represent the surface of the moon with huge craters and hard skin left by the biting! Its got to the point where its now so painful I can't let him do it and he screams with frustration and then wont sleep.

I wondered if anybody else has had this or can suggest what to do to get him to comfort himself to sleep rather than be dependant on sucking my finger?

You probably just have to tough it out, tbh: decide to stop and then under no circumstances give in and let him do it again! Horrible, I know, but after a few days he'll be ok... I speak as someone who gave up breast feeding my DD at 18 months. She had an epic, 45min tantrum the first night... And then was fine. That 45 mins I spent thinking I'd done the wrong thing, was hideous, but I was tired and knackered and wanted my body back!

DS is 2 years old and he sucks his own fingers in his sleep, when he went through a biting phase I gave him a muslin cloth to bite on and that helped a lot, would it be worth trying for your lo?