Should I get a soother for my thumb sucking 3 month old?

[IrisRoon]

My 12 week old has recently discovered her thumb. We've avoided giving her a soother so far as I'm breastfeeding and didn't want it to impede anything. As cute as her sucking her thumb is, I don't want her to do it forever! And I can remove a soother but not a thumb. We did try her with the MAM soothers recently but she spits it out straightaway. Doesn't want anything to do with them. I've been looking into the Philips Avent soothers and the HappiPaci Dr Brown ones, but unsure of which one would be better.

I knew a girl in primary school who sucked her thumb until she was like 10/11! Really don't want my little girl to be the same. She doesn't really do it during the day, just at night. I was thinking of putting socks over her hands to stop her, but also don't want to deprive her of something that comforts her. So unsure of what to do, any advice?

Don't stop your DC comforting herself!

If she won't take a dummy, then thumb it will be. At least with thumbs you don't have the broken nights when the damned thing drops out of the cot, not the moment of horror when you realise you've lost it on the way to your holiday, the spare you could have sworn you'd packed isn't there and it's several hours until next shops.

But yes, it can be hostile to teeth, and it can go on for years precisely because it can't be taken away. You can teach on older child it's for at home/in bed only, so friends at primary need never know.

I wouldn’t. Getting up 17 times a night to put it back in, when they aren’t yet able to do, it is a nightmare, it’s also bad for teeth, and DD may grow out of sucking her thumb.

My DN’s teeth are dreadful due to thumb sucking. She’s 9 now and still sick her thumb which means her adult teeth will likely be impacted. I’d probably go for the soother. DS had one and breast fed fine with it.

Oh I would never stop her comforting herself, yes there's perks like she'll never lose it like a soother. But the long term teeth/jaw/speech problems aren't desirable for me, for her benefit.

This is what I'm terrified of, I don't want my baby to have to deal with braces/impeded speech or any other complications when she's older. Do you remember what soother brand you used for your DS? Kinda kicking myself for not introducing a soother sooner but never planned on using them.

To be fair she's only doing this the last few days, and could grow out of it. But I'm not willing to leave her in hopes of her growing out of it, just in case she doesn't. That girl in my school will always stick in my head! Her teeth were also bad.

Ahh sorry I don’t remember the brand. mine is all grown up and 20 year old man these days! It flies by!

My baby has always been a thumb sucker, she slept and settled much better because of it! She's almost 2 and still does it. It's her teeth I'm mainly concerned about, if she doesn't grow out of it but there's ways to manage it/encourage her to stop when the time is right which as a young toddler I don't feel it is. Her speech hasn't been affected at all, and she only does it when falling asleep, never does it throughout the day.
I sucked my thumb till late age ( at bedtime) and did wear braces but so did a lot of non thumb sucking classmates, and I wore a glove and nail polish that tasted bad to stop.