Sucking hand/thumb

[CJ98]

My 11 week old daughter has started sucking her hand/thumb really aggressively over the last few weeks. People keep telling me it’s because she’s hungry but it doesn’t matter what time of day it is or whether she’s had a bottle or not she’ll suck on her hand/thumb. I was putting it down to her comforting herself as she doesn’t have a dummy/pacifer. She’s never taken to one so we know we don’t use that to comfort her, she’ll suck her thumb sometimes to get herself to sleep but I’ve become paranoid wondering if she’s doing this because she’s actually hungry and it’s her way of telling me. Should I be worried. ?

No, it’s comfort. She’d cry if she were hungry.

Just keep an eye on her weight gain, but I agree, it is most likely for comfort.

Its comfort, mine started around then too. She's now 3 and still loves her thumb!

It's for comfort. I would really consider trying again with the dummy, thumb sucking is really bad for teeth (much worse than orthodontic dummies) and it's harder to stop because you can't take their thumb away!

We try her with a dummy every so often and she just spits it out. We literally carry it around with us all the time just to see if she’ll take it & she really doesn’t like it.

I wouldn’t worry, it’s tiny newborns that can be quiet and sleepy if they’re very hungry. A healthy 11WO that’s gaining weight nicely will definitely let you if they want a feed by crying! It probably just means she’s a thumb sucker. There are pros and cons of that. She’ll be able to self soothe and unlike a dummy can’t loose it; my thumb sucker was my best sleeper because she’d never wake for comfort, only for food. Downside is that she’s still going at 7 and is going to cost me a fortunate at the orthodontist when she’s a teen…