For the past month or so M (9 months) has been sucking her thumb when she's going to sleep. I was ok with this and it seemed like a good soothing mechanism / sleep cue. Now in the last few days she's been sucking it a lot more. Today we were at the grocery store and she was wide awake and happy looking around and wanted to suck her thumb the whole time! DH has been trying to discourage it but I'm not sure if we should be pulling it away or just go with it. She stopped using the newborn paci when she was 3 or 4 months and we never introduced another one. Do you think a pacifier is better than a thumb because you can take it away?
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What's the reason for wanting to take it away?
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My daughter sucks her thumb to sleep or when she's tired but sometimes she'll pop her thumb in her mouth (ie. if she's riding in the carseat and it bored). These days, I'll just cheerfully say, "Honey, take your thumb out!" and she happily obliges and thinks it's a game. I don't mind that she uses thumb-sucking to sleep but I don't want her to suck it all the time into a bored habit. But when she was 9months old, I didn't mind either way...I still felt she was still a baby.
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@MrsF: we have a thumb sucker. She sucks when she's tired, upset or bored. She's 13 months. While a few people have told me to make her stop, the majority of people I talk to say let her suck. It's soothing and comforting to her. I know it will be a challenge to get her to stop someday and yes, I worry about it.
Did the lovey post make you think of this?
Any time I see people asking about dropping loveys or paci's, I start worrying about her thumb sucking.
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No, I wouldn't. It's a way for her to self-soothe and it's also virtually impossible to effectively discourage. Plus most kids stop while they are still young and there's no problems with their teeth as a result! The new book Baby Meets World has a great chapter on thumb and pacifier sucking and is very informative and reassuring! (And interesting!)
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My LO is a big thumb sucker. She's almost 2 and uses it to sleep and during the day. She's very shy and you can tell that once she gets into an uncomfortable situation (like someone strange is talking to her) she will pop that thumb in her mouth. I figure for now it's her way of coping. I'll deal with trying to get her to stop when she's a little older.
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Depends....I personally did not want LO sucking her thumb so I discouraged it when she wanted to suck her thumb.
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@Freckles: I don't know, I think I'm just worried that it's something that will be a battle when she's older. I sort of never really thought about it until watching it become a habit in front of my eyes
If I were going to try to discourage it it should probably be now because she's just started it. @mediagirl: I did see the lovey post and I think it did inspire me to ask the bee about it!
Thanks for the input ladies! It's nice to be reminded that most 9 month olds sucking their thumbs will not be 9 YEAR olds sucking their thumbs. I was also comforted by the letter at the end of @Mrs. Tea: 's thumb sucking post.
http://www.hellobee.com/2013/06/05/the-day-my-daughter-found-her-new-best-friend/
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yeah, R sucks her two fingers when she's tired/going to sleep and since she's only 6 months, i'm not worried about it. like mrs tea, i love that she found those fingers! it helped her go to bed on her own and i'm not about to take that away. pacis you have to replace and her fingers she can always find. i'll worry about it if she's older and still doing it!
Any time I see people asking about dropping loveys or paci's, I start worrying about her thumb sucking.
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