Thumb sucking help

[LittleMissRayofHope]

Ok, I know this will divide the crowd as thumb versus dummy. I don't like dummies. That's my choice not to use one.

DS is now 14 weeks and suckles for comforts. EBF and still feeding a lot. I want to help him find his thumb.
He can get his hands to his mouth but as he hasn't uncurled his hands yet he gets his knuckles instead of thumb.
Everytime I try to help him out his thumbs he gets upset at the sort of forced side of it. But he wants to suck.
I suspect he would sleep better if he could suck his thumb.

Any help? Have also posted in sleep

Thanks in advance!

Is he happy sucking his fist? Maybe just let him do that for the moment. Thumb, knuckle, what's the difference? My brother used to suck his two middle fingers.

I've had thumb, finger and dummy suckers. Leave him to it!!!

BTW from personal experience ditching the dummy was far less traumatic than ditching the thumb...

My experience is that you can't encourage. They have to do it themselves (and pick which bit - fingers, thumb, which hand) or they don't do it.

You can encourage a dummy if that is your preference by keep putting it in. You can't 'put a thumb in' so you just have to not supply a dummy and see what happens.

Took mine until about that age to find their thumb. He will find it in his own time - or not.

You really want a thumb sucker? Getting them to give it up can be so so hard. Doing it now with DC1 and so grateful that DC2 doesn't do it.

My dd is a thumb sucker and she could do it from birth, in fact we had a 4d scan done at 28 weeks and she was doing it then. I think they will find their own thumb/finger/fist if they want to. Ds had a dummy and he was a sucker too, it was gone by 18 months and soooo much easier to get rid of.
She's 8 now and still sucks her thumb, its a nightmare and I spend half the day telling her to take her thumb out of her mouth.

Mine sucked her two middle fingers; actually at first she'd shove her whole hand in and make herself gag. I would never have encouraged her to do it but it gave her comfort and I never had to train her out of it. She went from having her hands in her mouth all the time to simply not doing it by around six months.

You're the first person I've come across actively encouraging their baby to suck their thumb :-)

He gets frustrated on his knuckles. He then either wants to suckle on me but gets upset cos of the milk, or he settles for my finger. He clearly wants to suck but hasn't found his thumb yet. Fingers wouldn't bother me either. Just want to help him settle and be comfortable.

My dd sucked her thumb aswell and now at 2.5 she only does it at night.

Silly question but if he's getting frustrated are you sure he's not hungry?

It's not an exact science of course, but I've offered him the breast when he's going at his fist and sometimes he wants if, sometime he his extremely cross when milk comes out.
He clearly wants to suck for comfort, and I would prefer thumb over dummy. If I have to give a dummy in the end I will. Just wanted to attempt this first