How to discourage a 4 mth old from thumb sucking

[Isadora]

DD is now 4 months and has always loved her dummy, however lately she has been sticking in the thumb. Its so cute to watch, but its not really a habit I want her to have. Her first tooth is coming through at the moment as well, so I'm not sure if it has anything to do with that? Does anyone have any little tricks that could work?

[JordieC]

I'm not 100% sure this is true but I didn't think it mattered until they were much older. I've read that in a few places but someone else might know. I'm pretty sure they said that it's only a problem with pushing teeth when they are older, like 3 or 4. By that stage you can actually teach them not to do it. Nearly all the kids in my mother's group suck thumbs, or hands!

[mickyndan]

My DS is also 4 months old and I would rather him suck a dummy than his thumb. So everytime I see him sucking his thumb I pop his thumb out of his mouth and pop his dummy in. I don't think it matters either way, as long as they are happy that's the main thing. Good Luck. xxoo

[Charlyfrog]

It isn't an issue until their adult teeth start coming through. However, with DD#1 whenever she had her fists in her mouth, we would gently push her hands down and encourage her that we don't suck our hands and then we'd give her something else to suck on. She eventually dropped the habit.
DD#2 however sucks her thumb, mainly when she is tired so at nap time. I did try to substitute with the dummy but it actually kept her awake as it was so fun to play with plus am not a huge fan of leaving her alone with it as I have this paranoia that she'll get the teat off or something! (yes, weird I know ) So all I feel that I can do for now is replace her thumb with a teether or dummy (if she is really tired) with the same type of encouragement we gave DD#1when she is in between nap times. But it does look kinda cute though I agree!

[ShootingStar]

DS use to do this off and on at the same age and honestly it did not worry me. He doesnt do it now at all. I think at that age its them just starting to explore their tastes. I remember we were in the car with MIL in the back with Jesse and he put his thumb in his mouth, she said "Get that thumb out of your mouth".. he was 3 months old! I said to her, it is fine, honestly, if it is going to keep him content in the middle of the night and saves me getting up then im happy with it lol. If he was doing it now at this age, then i might do something about it but most of the time they do grow out of it.. DS did.

[Isadora]

Thanks everyone, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing with the pulling out of the thumb and replacing with a dummy. Hopefully it is something she will grow out of.

[satya]

I've got no tips for you but I was a "finger sucker" as a child (two fingers that pushed forward onto my teeth) and I did it way past when I should've and I ended up with really good teeth so don't stress too much about tooth damage.

[Dragonbub]

I know it is personal preference for parents to choose the pacifiers for their children, but I have done a bit of research to determine if thumbsucking is a habit I should be discouraging or not, and the answer is simply NOT.

Thumbsucking is fine until about 6 when the second teeth come through. About 95% of kids have self-weaned by this time. Any distortion of the baby teeth as a result of thumbsucking will correct itself when adult teeth come in.

My opinion is - it is safe, cheap, something they can control, convenient (you don't need chains or anything to keep the dummy on them), you don't need to get up in the middle of the night to put their dummy back in.

We still use a dummy when I want to pacify him - like to stretch him out between feeds just to get home or whatever. But he uses his thumb at his own discretion.

It is up to you, but I just wanted to give a positive spin to thumbsucking.

Sidenote - I sucked my thumb til I was 10 and LOVED it. I have absolutely no teeth problems at all and my thumbs are exactly the same size/shape