am I misguided to give 2.7 year old DS a dummy to save teeth from thumb ?

[Gemzooks]

don't know what to do.. DS is an inveterate thumb sucker, and his front teeth are really starting to stick out. I did the same as a kid and had really buck teeth, had to wear a brace etc. and want to avoid this for DS, so had idea of giving him a dummy to suck at sleep times instead. he loves it and used it last night, never had one before. but nursery were horrified and said dummy would damage his teeth AND his speech (his speech is good).

what should I do?

The dummy may not necc affect his speech if he is olny having it for sleeping. But it may well make his teeth protrude & that could alter his speech.

In all honesty, this is when parents are trying to get rid of the dummy & I can only think that you are swapping one battle (his thumb) for another!

Sucking anything for long periods of time will affect the teeth and jaws.

However, you can remove a dummy but you can't remove a thumb.

is there a way to wean him off sucking anything? and if so, how?

How old is he?

2 and 7 months..