As a baby I refused a dummy and sucked my fingers until I was about 5 or 6. I actually remember wanting to stop because I thought it was so babyish but what tended to happen is that I would wake up in the morning with my fingers resting on my lips and they would be all pruney from the sucking! I do honestly believe it had just become a habit rather than still needing comfort.

I broke the habit by myself eventually (which my Mum was pleased about - she had taken the view that I would grow out of it myself when I was ready) but I wound up with terribly crooked/bucky teeth. I am convinced that it was due to the finger sucking because my palate and teeth fitted perfectly around the favourite fingers prior to my getting braces. It was all fixed with orthodontic treatment and now I have lovely teeth but I will never forget how embarrassed I was about my terrible teeth and did cop quite a bit of teasing at school and I still cringe looking back at old photos. I actually really wish she had tried something like nailbiters solution on my fingers, although I know that some believe that this would fly in the face of gentle parenting - in this case, I think that something like this that might cause short term discomfort is far outweighed by a longer term benefit.

Now I'm already worried about my baby and potential finger sucking and given my experience, if he got to toddler stage, in my judgement was a secure child, and was still finger sucking I'd be trying to help break the habit. I'm hoping that if he needs to comfort suck, he'll take the dummy because the teat is flexible, fingers are not, and therefore fingers are more likely to change the shape of his mouth.