Dummy or Thumb?

[Haily111]

Hello everyone, my littlen is 12 weeks. When i first brought her back from hospital, she would find her thumb without having any coordination! So i decided to give her a dummy, as i was under the assumption that it is harder to get rid of a thumb (haha) then a dummy!
My Cousin sucked his thumb when he was younger, he is now 26 and when he is tired or is actually asleep his thumb finds its way to his mouth!
In the last two weeks, she seems to be finding her thumb more and more before i get a chance to offer her the dummy. I also think she is starting to teeth, so am not sure if that is another reason why it has increased.
My question is where do i go from here? And would also like to know other mums experience with 'getting rid of the thumb' (or dummy)!

Thanks for the help.

I go for the dummy - my lo had one just at sleep times up until he was 19mths when we realised he only ever used it at home and nowhere else. It was a tough week but now we find it hard to remember him with it!! I think a thumb sucking habit is definitely harder to break. My friends little boy sucked his thumb and got sore and chapped skin etc as he had eczema and they had great difficulty in trying to get him to stop doing it

Serentiy - you're not the only one - I had a very redfaced moment sat in a traffic jam last week!

But - having said that, whatever you choose I think it's partly to do with how youtry and get kids to stop that makes it successful or not. Going to go all psychological on you - sorry! Kids suck for comfort and to relieve anxiety, if your put loads of pressure on them they will feelmore anxious and want to suck more- this is what my mum did. She shouted at me, put my hand in a glove, plasters, foul tasting solution, even smacked me once or twice - I really believe if she hadn't tried so hard I'd have stopped. Proof in a way with my brothers - she was equally had on my older one and he still thumb sucks too wheras she didn't even bother trying with my little bro and he stopped when he was about 6.

My DS sucks his thumb, we started with a dummy but he cried through it and learned to chuck it out of the cot so we took it off him completely and that's when he found his thumb. I think for ease at the time thumbs are better as they can't be lost and don't need to be sterilised but long term go with a dummy if you can you can take it away more easily. With DS2 on the way, I'm doing dummy if I can this time. In terms of planning to get DS1 to stop it's basically no pressure and if I see him doing it duting the day I think comments like, 'you look like you need something to do, how about helping mummy do the dusting?' will be more effective than my mum's methods!

Thumbsucking - gross. Mine have all had dummies. DS1 gave it up after a couple of months but couldn't get to sleep on his own until he was two. DS2 gave his up a few weeks ago - he's 3 - there were a couple of tearful nights but now he doesn't mention it. He was down to his last one and and was told if it broke or got lost that would be it, as the shop won't sell them to big boys (or their mums). BTW he never took it to pre-school, so he knew they were for babies! My DD has one but she knows it is only for naptime/bedtime. Might try leaving it out for Father Christmas to pass on to a new baby BTW all have lovely teeth and talk clearly and confidently.

probably a bit late to say now - but my cuddly was a bit of a cotton baby blanket - my mum would extract the used one from me while i slept and replace it with another (clean) section, i am not sure exactly when i gave it up but it was definately before i started nursery school.from what i am reading the extendeduse of any comforter depends more on the personality of the individual child rather than the method used but perhaps the embarrassment factor of an older child with a dummy gives parents an incentive to force the issue. i just can't bear the thought of using a dummy and as ddtends to suck her fingers as an indication she wants a feed and has the muslin as a comfort in the pushchair hopefully it will work out ok... ds now 2 has never sucked his thumb or had a dummy.

It is weird actually have just realised my dd snuggles up to any blanket when i give her one (she sleeps in a grobag at night) so i might leave a blanket in with her, am just worried it'll end up over her face as she is such a wriggler :-/

dd had a dummy until i was sick of getting up in the night to stick it back in. i took it away at 4 months and about 3 days later she found her thumb. The thumb only goes in when she's tired although thinking about it i'm now realising that it may be more often than that. I sucked my thumb until i was 10. I only gave up because we went on holiday with a boy! I'm not worried about dd sucking her thumb at all.

i totally understand your concerns - i have found that if i don't provide dd with a cloth to suck on she improvises with her sleeve, her skirt or any other fabric or soft toy within range... so i keep heavy fabrics that could suffocate out of range as much as possible and let her do her thing. We pretty much co-sleep at the moment and she doesn't tend to suck on anything once asleep after feeding. i don't worry unless whatever she has hold of could cover her face, as long as her nose is clear i figure she is fine.

I used to woory about that too as ds had his musly (muslin_) from really early on. 4 months I
think. Muslins are good though as they have little tiny holes in them so are more breathable.

From experience. Thumb is a PITA to get rid of BUT if DD wants her thumb at this age there is nothing you can do to stop her (also from experience).

Thanks again for all your views.

Have another question regarding this. What if your dd or ds gets frustrated with their thumb as it doesn't seem to be doing what they want it to, would you then offer them their dummy?

personally I wouldn't, I could see that dd2 was trying to get her thumb in from a very early age and would cry when she couldn't get it together.

I offered her my little finger to settle herself and as soon as she was about 9 weeks she managed it herself just about.
but I really didn't want to give her a dummy

If she wants her thumb you won't stop her, i did't want my dd1 to be a thumb sucker but she wouldn't have a dummy as i tried. She has just turned 5 and is still sucking! I'd try a dummy, but the teeth friendly kind with the flat teat. The worst that can happen is she wont have it.

Another tip, try to give it only when falling asleep, don't leave her to have access to it all the time.

All children are different, my dd2 didn't have a dummy or suck her thumb!

I think i have gotten to the point where she doesn't want the dummy now as she is constantly finding her thumb! Choice taken out of my hands eh

It couldn't be teething though could it?

haily my ds pulls the blanket over his head constantly and i was worried as well but now i just put him in a grobag and give him a light blanket with lots of holes in it and he loves it. If that's in the wash I give him one of those small stuffed animal heads attached to a little square of a blanket so it's too small to do any harm but he can still cover up with it.

btw he uses a dummy only to sleep, wants nothing to do with it when he's awake and at 20 weeks is using it less and less on his own. i have to say i'd much rather that than having shrivelled thumb in his mouth all the time. my niece now has a huge brace in her mouth from sucking (which she did until they put it in when she was 13). at 14 now my sister says she still catches her sleeping with it in her mouth sometimes despite having a mouth full of metal!