Should I use a dummy or let her suck her thumb?

Claire is now about 10 weeks old, and has started to suck her thumb. Its not because she is hungry though, she'll just lie there and suck her thumb and look around the room.
I dont know whether to let her just suck her thumb or if I should try to get her to take a dummy. I have tried the dummy today but she just spits it out straight away.

People tell me I should not let her suck her thumb.. they all say I should make her have a dummy because when she gets a bit older I can take the dummy away but I cant take her thumb away from her. To be honest, I really dont like dummies because i think they are just yuk... so i dont know what to do.

but I just wanted to know what others think. Should I just let her suck on her thumb or try the dummy more often?

Dummies here... and if i spot a thumb going near Chelsea's mouth i move it out...

CHarlie loves his dummy and i'm actually glad that he sucks his dummy rather than thumb - as you said you can always take the dummy away but not the thumb - plus now there are dummies that are orthodontic approved so they don't cause teeth problems

Id leave her. A thumb is alot more natural than a dummy. The self soothing a thumb can offer can be wonderful. I had one thumbsucker out of 4 but would have loved 4..it just made it so much easier and didnt want to use me instead!

Jo

I'd go the dummy, Caro is right, you can chuck a dummy out, but you can't chop off a thumb!

I have been a dental nurse (in orthodontics as well) for 10 years and that is MHO, but each to their own, you have to do what feels best for you and your baby. Just be aware that thumb sucking into primary school years can lead to alot of dental problems............in fact our niece has had very protrusive 'buck' teeth since she was three, so severe is her thumb habit. It's going to cost her parents alot of money when sh'e older! I can tell you countless stories of children who want to give up sucking their thumb themselves, but find it VERY hard.

Obviously dummies can cause problems too, but they are usually removed from the child before it becomes a problem.

sophie started sucking her thumb at the same age! i'm a dental nurse and as much as it concerns me LONGTERM for the moment i'm not worried at all! it's very natural comfort sucking, she self settles like a dream and wont even take a dummy, i'd leave her

ETA- hehehe sarah!!!!

Sophie sucks her thumb up the other way!! not sure why, seems uncomfortable if you ask me!!!

Hi Karina, personally I wouldn't worry about it. Particularly if you don't like dummies. Natalie won't take one either, though I have tried lots of times with lots of different brands and shapes. I've resigned myself to the fact that she just doesn't like them and will use her hands to self-soothe.
You know, sometimes it isn't easy to get rid of a dummy, and they can occasionally cause sleep problems (you have to keep plugging them in.) A baby always knows where their thumb is, so it could work in your favour. You baby might grow out of it before it becomes an orthodontic issue. Heck, your baby might end up needing orthodontics regardless!! It's not always something you can control ;)

I'd be sticking with the thumb as she can control when it goes in and out....and you wont be getting up in the middle of the night to put it back in.

Like a few others have said, it only causes problems when it's used long term. Chuck a band-aid over it when you want her to stop....worked for my freind.

I too hate the look of a dummy in a cute little baby's mouth.....ugh. Mind you, Caty sometimes has one in.

I have a thumbsucker and i tell you getting him off the thumb is hard! BUT it does have its advantages, *you never loose it, *it is easy for them to find, *helps self settle.
BUT when you try and get them to stop sucking it its hard. Although i think of bucked teeth etc, like Snacks said your bubba may need to go to an orthadontist anyways.
I also have a dummy sucker and i have lost 3 already and he is only 11 weeks old. He too puts his thumb in his mouth, so we will see what happens! I dont really mind either way......

thanks for all your advice and stories ladies.
I think I'll talk to hubby about it again.
She's happy now, but sometimes she is in such a shocking mood and I neeeeed something else to help her settle.

Bodhi sucks his thumb & also has a dummy. To be honest id rather him suck his thumb. Like someone else said...sorry can't remember who.....at least u never loose the thumb.
Mya sucks her thumb when shes tired. I sucked my thumb for years & my teeth r fine. DF never sucked his thumb & he has terrible teeth lol.
Apperently as long as u get them to stop by the time their big teeth r coming through it should be fine.....so i read somewhere.

Hi, we went with the dummy for a couple of reasons: a) you can take it away later and they are designed to cause fewer problems with the shape of teeth as they form and b) we then could control when the dummy was administered (ie only at sleeping time - hate the sight of a child with dummy in mouth talking around it as it can be an impediment to speech development)!

The other main reason we even started with the dummy was because DD would get confused about when to start sucking at feeding time, if I could get her sucking on the dummy, I could then whip it out and pop my nipple in. Unconventional method, i know, but it worked for us!

Esme got a dummy at five weeks but found her thumb at 8 weeks and still sucks it now. I was happy when she sucked her thumb as i was sick of finding, washing and sterilising the dummy (i was BFing so no bottle-washing for me to chuck it in with) and she couldn't drop her thumb on the pavement while out and about.

I have to admit i don't like the look of a dummy, but that's personal preference - it makes me think of hannibal lector in silence of the lambs with that gag over his face - YUK! I know, i'm an oddball.... :)

DP sucked his thumb until he was 3. Ladies, i have to confess...i still suck mine. Yep, i know, i'm 26. It's generally only when i'm very tired or stressed but it still happens enough that i have a "suckers callous" on my thumb where my bottom teeth lie. I have very straight teeth and have never had braces or orthodontic treatment, and my dentist told me i have the straightest un-braced teeth she's ever seen. SHe also told me that DD's thumb-sucking won't be a problem unless it goes on past age 7, when her adult teeth start to come in. I guess i'll just keep an eye on it, and see how she goes.

Hana

Angus is coming up to 4 and we can't get him to stop sucking his thumb.

As the others have said you can't take away the thumb.

I say whatever makes em happy! Jesse has always loved his dummies but every now and then would stick his thumb in his mouth. MIL always pulled it out and told him not to suck his thumb until one day she did it in front of me and i said no leave him.. if sucking his thumb makes him happy in the middle of the night and saves me getting up every 5 seconds to put his dummy back in, its works for me. I think whether you pull their thumb out of their mouth or not, theyre gonna suck it.. and you cant be there 24/7 pulling it out. That was when he was younger and he doesnt do it any more. If he was 3 or 4 and sucking it then yeh i might try and nip it in the butt but i say do what makes them happy.

Eleanor has started to suck her thumb but not all the time she is also sticking her fingers in her mouth. She does talk when doing it at the same time. I know she doesn't do it to get to sleep as she still takes the dummy.

I'm all for the thumb myself.

My daughter sucks her thumb when she's tired and that's about it - she's formed that as a sleep association and it works for us.

hi there, before i had my first i was certain that my children would never have dummys untill the day my mum said to me,
"Girly if a childs going to be a sucker then they'll be a sucker, givem a dummy you cant throw a thumb away"

then she reminded me of her exhusbands daughter who was still sucking her thumb at fourteen

My kids got dummys
my Daughter chose to have neither dummy or thumb:dance:

I have never been keen on dummies, but I have tried both boys with them. Neither would have a bar of it. Luckily Jack was not really interested in his thumb either, he sucked it for about 3 weeks then stopped. Hair twirling is his thing.

Thomas on the other hand is a very avid thumb sucker and doesn't look like stopping anytime soon. I have mixed feelings about this - at least he can self-settle and I'm not getting up in the night to replace a dummy or dealing with tanties in the car bcos the dummy was dropped etc as I have had friends go through. But my sister was a thumb sucker who needed a lot of dental work so I am worried about longer term. But my approach is to let it go for the time being. He has only 2 teeth now, and he is so young. And I probably can't do much to stop it anyway. When he is older and he can understand things, I can try then to give him alternatives (if he doesn't stop by himself anyway, which they often do). So personally, my advice would be, go with the flow, and worry about it later if it's still happening then. You might find it just stops anyway and you've worried for nothing.