Thursday, June 17, 2010

Thumb sucker or binky baby

Will has discovered just how much he enjoys his thumb.  He's been sucking it quite a bit lately, particularly when he's tired.  Although, not when he goes to sleep because that still requires a swaddle.  Incidentally, I may be writing a future post titled: How to swaddle a one year old.  Because he doesn't seem like he's going to be giving that up anytime in the near future.  But back to the topic at hand.  Thumb sucking.  I feel like I have two options right now.  I can either: let the thumb sucking continue, and hope he gives it up at a reasonable age, or replace the thumb with a pacifier and encourage that instead.

Apparently we got off easy with Kalena.  She quit liking pacifiers at about 4 months and she never sucked her thumb.

Part of me thinks I should just leave it alone and maybe he won't ever really get into the thumb sucking.  Then the rational part of me says, "HA HA HA!  Yeah right."  I don't doubt that there are good things about thumb sucking.  There's always a thumb!  No lost pacifiers!  Makes it easy for him to self-soothe!  BUT.  You can't take the thumb away when you want him to quit.  I just don't know.

And before anyone brings it up, I'm not worried about his teeth.  Brian was a thumb sucker and has perfectly straight teeth, no braces.  I never sucked my thumb (or took a pacifier) and I had an overbite and a cross-bite and I've had retainers and braces and more retainers and I STILL have to sleep in retainers and probably will every night until I get dentures.  So dental work = not a factor in my decision.  I let you know how it plays out.  I know you're thrilled.

6 comments:

  1. It's a big trade off. Easy now is thumb sucking. It is so easy to have a baby or toddler who sucks their thumb. It is so much easier to break the pacifier habit. We finished that in a week. The 7 yr old is still working on not sucking the thumb but we are close. So do you want the easy now or later? Side note if he really likes his thumb good luck substituting.

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  2. As mom says, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.. no use worrying he'll still suck his thumb when he's three, because it's a loooong way away! They make nasty-tasting nail polish you can put on your children's fingers to create an eversion to thumb-sucking, though, when the time is right. I say go for the thumb!

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  3. Both my boys had pacifiers and while it was annoying to look for them all the time it was great to have them. They both got obvious joy at being reunited with them at the end of the day (once they were past the all day stage.) And, both were really easy to break of it too.

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  4. I have no advice on the thumb but do you want me to bring the hospital recieving blanket for Will? That's the only blanket that would keep Amelia swaddled for longer than 30 seconds. If Will makes it past 8 months, you beat us. :)

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  5. We're thumbsuckers here. My mom sucked her thumb until she was 7. And then her parents told her that leprechauns would dye it green if she fell asleep sucking it. They did and she stopped. By the looks of it with both of my girls, little green men will have to visit our house too. But it makes them happy and they sleep, sleep, sleep, so whatever. Both sucked their thumb in-utero (EVERY single u/s with Jordan). I think it might be hereditary. I'm not worried about it. They'll stop when they're ready. Good luck!!

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  6. I sucked my finger FOREVER! And unlike Brian, I had major teeth issues. Mr. M. was like Kaleena. Miss L is a thumbsucker. I tried SO HARD to stop her. It did no good. She was like Houdini - she could get out of any contraption, she licked off the yucky stuff. Yes, I wish I would have stopped it way back when, but I wasn't able to.

    I would say, "Stop him asap." Then I'd say, "Good luck."

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