Thumb Sucking

hi all my boy is 14 weeks old and about a week ago he found his thumb, (before that he he would stick his whole hand and anything else in his mouth).
i have tried pulling it out but it just goes straight back in and im not really worried bout it at the moment (and he looks so cute) but just wondering if i should be, i dont want him to do that when he is older? i have tried to give him a dummy many times but he spits it out every time

at this age I would not worry too much my girl is 9 months old and still sucks her thumb and like your boy she spat out a dummy when we gave it to her.

I think it's only a problem if they are still thumb-sucking in a few years (my sister was a chronic thumb-sucker past when her permanent teeth came in, and therefore had major teeth issues because of it). To be honest, I'm hoping our little one finds her thumb, as she won't take a dummy, and as you said also, is just sticking her whole fist into her mouth at the moment, and I have seen how it can help settle them... From what I can gather, it isn't a problem for most babies

Edited by blondy

My son sucks his thumb. I think it is so cute and I'm not worried about it.

DS spat out dummies when I tried it on him. He is always good at self-settling and I don't have to get up umpteen times in the night to shove his dummy back in.

I read somewhere that 90% of children stop by age ?? (I can't remember the age LOL!!) But I know it was young and nothing to worry about.   

No way!

I said to DH once...

"It's ok. How many adults do you see sucking their thumbs?"

Guess I was wrong

Edited by Star

One of them is my aunt, and she has 4 children (none of them suck theirs BTW). She only does it in private and when she is watching TV or in bed.

Brae sucked his thumb from a NB till just over 3yrs.

He was in the bath 1 day & he noticed his fingers going wrinkly from the water (as they do when you stay in too long) I told him, if they get too wet they go wrinkly & rotten & fall off & sucking your thumb makes them wet He hasnt sucked them since

Caitlyn had a dummy, then we got rid of it and she found her thumb ...which she still sucks.
But hey , if she does need braces (cos as lucky as you guys were, the majority of thumbsuckers do have teeth issues later on , for eg,85% of our patients were thumbsuckers) then at least if im still working where i am, she can get a discount.

I hope not (to her needing braces, and me working where i am !)

DD1 has sucked her thumb since about 8 weeks old and still does it, though only when she's tired or cuddling her pink bunny (comfort toy). However, with her teeth now all in she has developed a type of dermatitis on her thumb and hand at the base of her thumb because her teeth and the saliva are irritating the skin, so we're going to try and get her to stop.
DD2 has just started sucking her thumb at 13 weeks.

I figure DH had braces and I should have (my teeth are crooked as) so a bit of thumb sucking probably won't change what is an inevitable thing for my girls!

Chiara's working on it, she sucks her fist but hasn't figured out how to separate the thumb out yet lol. Mind you, Sienna did that too and she preferred sucking her wrist over her thumb.