Thumbsucking - Albuquerque,NM

Hi A., I think she will eventually stop. My 3 year old son sucked on his two middle fingers from 2 months to 6 months and stopped. He sucked on them off and on through out the day and they started to crack and bleed and he stopped. My 7 month old little girl sucks her thumb while she drinks a bottle and when she goes to bed until she falls asleep. i think they eventually grow out of it. She doesn't do it much anymore. Dont force a pacifier, that habbit is hard to break. Good luck and dont worry too much about it right now.

My daughter sucks her thumb - she is almost 2 years old - and has since she was about 3 months old. I was concerned about the impact on her teeth as well and we recently took her to the dentist. He said it is not that big of problem for her baby teeth, but I want to for sure break the habit before her adult teeth come in. He claimed that the affect on her baby teeth would not affect her adult teeth as long as she no longer sucks her thumb by then. So I figure we have some time before that, but I also kind of want another professional opinion. I just thought I'd pass on what we have been told though... Oh also, my daughter's doctor doesn't seem overly concerned with it either at this point...

I have a 2-month old that does the same thing - doesn't like pacifiers and prefers her hands. We just went to the pediatrician and asked about it. He said that it's a way for her to soothe herself and that we shouldn't worry about it. Also, he said it might be related to her starting to use "language". I guess she's seeing what her tongue feels like. :) As far as the pacifier, our baby spits it out soon after we put it in. The pediatrician said that it might be gagging her since she is a bit small.

Both of my kids refused pacifiers and both sucked their thumbs. My son did end up having to wear a pallet expander, due to his upper pallet being more narrow than his bottom, but there is no proof that it was because he sucked his thumb. He sucked his thumb at night till his was 4 when HE decided he was done with it because he was now a big boy. My daughter is currenly 2 1/2 and also sucks her thumb at night.

The dentist hasn't been too concerned about either of them because they only did it at night. They are more concerned when the child does it all day. Don't worry about it right now because your baby is young. As she gets older, don't allow her to do it during the day. If she gets hooked on a blanket (which both of mine did), that's when they usually will do it. I don't let my daughter walk around with or take her blanket anywhere. It stays in her bed and that's when she does it when she' sleeping. Good luck.

In my experience...
1. there is no need to worry about this at her early age. Babies go through stages with this. If she were one, I might worry.

2. There is no reason to make her take a pacifier if she doesn't want one. My three kids never had a pacifier at all. I'm not sure why you want her to have one, but I wouldn't keep trying if she doesn't want it!

Congrats and good luck!

Thumb-sucking often pushes the upper front baby teeth forward and the lower teeth back.