2.5 Year old dd has suddenly started thumb sucking. Any thoughts?

[Astrophe]

I HATE it. It seems so unnessesary for her to start it now - she never sucked thumb or dummy as a baby. She is bright and normally a big talker, but is now silent with the wretchd thumb glued to her mouth. I think it started when she copied her little friend as a joke, but now its a habit - she even sucks it in her sleep. It been about a month now.

yuck, yuck, yuck.

just a rant really, I guess I can't do anything about it, but it feels like my little girl has sort of dissapeared, and i guess thats what i'm upset about.

DD does this sometimes, similarly she is 2 1/2 and never sucked anything as a baby. I think she does it for effect. Also when she visits her friend she always manages to find a dummy around the house and puts that in her mouth. But she doesn't suck it, just wanders around with it clamped between her teeth.

Fortunately for me DD has not taken to the thumb in quite such a big way. But if I see it in her mouth I do remove it. In fact DD does it when she is annoyed with me as a sort of defiance.

my dd sucks her thumb and always has - she is 4 and mostly confines it to getting off to sleep
I have no issue with it, she always takes it out to talk.

My 2.5 year old started this a couple of months ago. Wouldn't have a dummy as a baby and never sucked her thumb previously.
She is copying a friend from nursery. Unfortunately she has discovered that she really likes it and the thumb is now jammed in there almost permanantly.
No help i know but at least you know you aren't alone.

thanks crocK!

my DD1 used to suck her thumb whenever she saw a particular pre-school worker. She liked the person just whenever she saw her would suck her thumb, even after she had left pre-school. Odd!