Finger Sucking

[Quootiepie]

Hiya,
My DS (5 1/2 months) is sucking his fingers alot. Hes teething so im not sure if its that, or if I should stop him. I tried to offer a dummy, but he likes his fingers more and spits the dummy out. Shall I just leave him to it?? Thanks

my ds1 sucked the back of his hand, wouldn't take a dummy etc. We found it practically impossible to stop him - after all you can't take it away like a duumy.

On the positive side - you won't lose it - or forget to take it with you - we ended up telling ds to put his hand in when we wanted intant comfort or sleep. ( I suspect, although I can't really remember that we would also have told him to take it out if he was sucking while playing etc)
For us it was never a problem or issue - a blessing at times, he grew out of it by about two - no trauma, no policy decision, we just noticed he didn't do it so much , and then tha the had stopped. Others may well have different stories and advice - I hope its as straight forward for you as it was for us

Anytime from around 4 mths babies start to bring their hands to their mouths purposefully. It is a developmental advance, they have not only discovered that the hands are theirs and they can control them but they learn about their environment through mouthing objects including their hands.

I doubt you can stop him tbh.

Why would you want to stop him - even if you could?

Mine permanently has her fingers in her mouth!!She has just realised she can make lovely lipsmacky noises whilst sucking fingers,which sounds quite funny and she loves if we mimic it!!!!Shes 9 months btw and has done this since being tiny.Dont worry hell grow out of it eventually.

Please take a look at this page
www.thumbguard.co.uk
We bought one and it was extremely successful in about 3 weeks (they say about two). They do Finger guards aswell.

Good luck.

DH was a finger sucker but now (10 months) he only does it when he's really tired cos there's loads more interesting things around he can stick in his mouth

thanks for replies... HV said dummies were preferable to finger or thumb sucking because of the shape... the way he sucks his fingers looks like he is going to pull his growing teeth forward. Its good in some ways because he has learned abit of self soothing, but im not sure if its "right" - im abit clueless!

I personally hate dummies,just an individual thing (nothing wrong with them dont want to upset anyone) and know of people who have had problems in getting rid of the dummy once child is used to it and getting too old for one.
ds is nearly 3 and sucks thumb when tired and occasionally when upset.He has nice straight teeth!
dd is going through the fingers in mouth stage.At your ds age he is just discovering his hands,a normal developmental thing.Hands are amazing to young babies and both mine would spend ages admiring them,waving them and clenching/unclenching them! Next they discover toes which opens up a whole new vista of possibilities!!!(dd was trying to suck her big toe when I undressed her for her bath last night,she also loves pulling off her socks and "This little piggy" is her favourite rhyme currently).Babies discover the world through putting things in their mouth be it fingers, toes, toys,wooden spoons,food and once in my sons case the cats tail( I stopped that pretty quickly I can tell you).Its normal.Dont worry!!!!

so hes not going to end up with buck teeth phew!

Oh yes - DS loves watching us do Incy Wincy Spider (where you put right index finger on left thumb tip& vice versa)

Iklboo - your dh is 10months?

Seriously, dd sucked her thumb and gave it up around a year of her own accord, sometimes she sucks her fingers when she's nervous now but that's about all...

Yes - I'm a cradle snatcher!!! hee hee - meant DS of course
Although sometimes I wonder.........