I've mentioned it several times before, but both DH and I were both on the "no pacifier/no soothie" bandwagon pre-baby. We gave in for car rides and turns out K isn't too big of a fan of the soothie. She'll take it sometimes in the car if she's fussing, but refuses when she's full-on pissed.

Now she has "found her fingers" and loves to suck on her fist (or rather, just stuffed in her mouth)and most recently, her thumb. And now DH is like, "It's almost better if we had just let her use a pacifier than to be a thumb-sucker."

I've been told by parents and grandparents, etc. "We never used a pacifier" and all the evils of pacificers. The same parents and grandparents will also tell us "don't let her suck her thumb!" *finger wags* I have to admit, I can't recall some of my closest friends/family's LOs using pacifiers OR sucking their fingers.
How is this achievable? If your LO didn't use either, HOW do they self-soothe?

I'm really wondering now as K has been waking me up to unswaddle her just so she can gnaw on her fist the past few nights. What is an alternative?