Thumb sucking in 5 month old

[AmIDoingThisRight]

My DS is 5 months old and really, really loves sucking his thumb. He normally does it when he's sleepy or a bit upset and it seems to calm him well.

I didn't want to give him a dummy (probably irrational dislike of them) but now I'm wondering if it's a bad thing for him to be sucking his thumb? Do they eventually stop of their own accord or will this turn into a big problem?

He is teething a little bit at the moment and I can see a little bit of tooth starting to poke through the gum.

No real advice really but my DS2 is 7 months and he has been sucking his thumb since he was tiny tiny. Like your DS its when he is tired. I'm just going to go with the flow, i don't think there is a great deal you can do to stop them when they are so young and they will probably grow out of it.

Both my DDs started sucking their thumbs from about 4 months and now (aged 3.5 and 1.5) still suck them a lot. There is not much you can do about it. Both mine had dummies (and loved their dummies) until they started sucking their thumbs, but once they worked out where their thumbs were the dummies were sidelined and ignored. Thumb sucking is a great comforter but it gets quite annoying when they are older and also there is the risk that it can cause problems with teeth (although I sucked my thumb for years and my teeth are straight). We have now just about persuaded DD1 not to suck her thumb during the day or at nursery school (I tell her that thumb sucking is for bed time and if she wants to suck her thumb she should go and get into bed). I'll do the same with DD2 when she is about 2. I remember my mother bribing me to stop sucking my thumb when I was about 8, a mixture of reward charts and anti nail bite stuff that you paint on the thumb and tastes horrid. I will also try this when the girls are a bit older if the thumb sucking gets too much. As they get older though you'll find that they tend only to suck thumbs if they are tired or bored.

Mydaughter, age 7, is a chronic thumb sucker and nose picker - usually at the same time. I can work on the nose picking with rewards and reminders but the thumb sucking is impossible. My one successful attempt with the thumb sucking resulted in the development of a new habit - pulling her hair out. I decided to settle for goofy rather than bald. Am I wrong ?