Dummy or thumb sucker??

[katie05]

Which of these (if any) would you prefer your lo to do and why? Im asking as my lo is a very sucky baby and often uses her bottle as a soother but doesnt drink the milk. We havent given her a dummy yet but she has started sucking her thumb and hubby said he'd much prefer her to have a dummy than thumb.
So..just wondering what your views/experiences are really.

 

[Foxxi]

Fynn liked to do both... now he doesnt do either..

He was never really over fussed about his dummy.. when he was really small he liked to suck his thumb.. but he decided about 3 months ago he no longer liked his dummy and then stopped sucking his thumb!

 

[Sherlock]

Thumb sucker

We are using a dummy till Galen turns about 4 months and then ditching them. Were great for getting him off my boob in the early weeks but past 4 months and he'll start to remember them and therefore miss them. Stopping with them before then means no screaming or crying or other possible upset you will get when trying to stop an older child using a dummy.

Dummies cause more hassle once past that stage as at some point you have to take them away. Most chlldren will grow out of thumb sucking anyways. Some do carry on but most do stop before damage is done to teeth and jaw.

Small babies suck for comfort but it also helps if they are colicky. Galen does better on a dummy when his colic is bad than he does hand or thumb sucking. Less air gets in with the dummy and it seems to relax him more. He turns his head like he does to feed wheras his hand just gets shoved in and he fusses.

 

[daftscotslass]

I was very anti-dummy but then she started using the bottle for comfort and projectile vomiting because she was taking so much. That stopped right away with the dummy. About 3 weeks ago for some reason she started to ditch the dummy . She ditched it completely at night and has only used it twice for day naps in the last week. Even then she spat it right out as she started to fall asleep. We never used it to comfort her when she was awake, it was always associated with sleep.

In the first couple of weeks she replaced it with her thumb/fingers/fist but now she doesn't seem to need anything to settle which is great. So dummy is now for emergencies only!

It's totally up to you but I'm glad I changed my mind about it.

 

[Leese]

James was also a very sucky baby - he cried and cried when we first brought him home and the HV suggested trying him with a dummy which worked wonders. I'd really been against them before I saw that it really helped him.It was hard not to give him it every time he cried though! When he was about 2 months he found his fingers and still sooks them when he needs to comfort himself. The worst time was when he didn't want the dummy but couldn't reliably find his fingers!

 

[Becky]

Lucy is a two-finger sucker!

She started sucking her fist/fingers from when she was hours old and it didn't bother me at all. Personally so long as she can comfort herself I don't see the problem. She used to do it a lot more but the older she gets the less she does it. Its become now a mainly tired/reassurance thing and is usually tied in with holding a piece of ribbon (or in bed she likes to feel it on her toes ) I'm not worried about weaning her off it as she is doing it herself. We don't take her ribbons or teddy out with us and don't encourage her to suck her fingers.

The thing I like about her sucking her fingers instead of a dummy is that if she wants to eat/talk/play etc. she has to take them out so there's an incentive there for her whereas a dummy could be left in longer than needed.

There's pros and cons for both especially as you can throw a dummy away but Lu will have her fingers forever but I'm confident that she'll grow out of it - neither me nor my brother suck our fingers/thumbs as adults!!

 

[KJ]

Ash is most definitely a thumb sucker! He is ambidexterous and doesn't care which thumb he sucks. But when he's not playing or feeding or crawling, he's sucking his thumb!

I sucked my thumb until I was 8, which I think is too old. There's no way we could stop him, if we take it out it just goes back in again! I will encourage him to stop when his second set of teeth come through (if he's still doing it then).

K.xx

 

[Zodiac]

Thumb sucker!

I was really against giving Oliver a dummy at first and didn't until he had really bad colic at about 3months old. That helped settle him, and he only had it for about 2weeks.

I've never used a dummy in the daytime or taken one out with me anywhere.

I still keep a dummy in the bedroom just in case he has trouble getting off to sleep, but 9 times outta 10 he doesn't need it.

At the mo he's sucking as much of his hand as'll fit in his mouth

 

[debecca]

Both

She has had a dummy since a week old because of her colic and used to need it to go to sleep, but since she's discovered her WHOLE FIST (or more often, two fingers) she seems fine with that too - which is a relief.

Not bothered what she sucks to be honest as long as she's calm and happy

(She doesn't have the dummy during the day at all now)

 

[newmum]

Thumb sucker

We are using a dummy till Galen turns about 4 months and then ditching them. Were great for getting him off my boob in the early weeks but past 4 months and he'll start to remember them and therefore miss them. Stopping with them before then means no screaming or crying or other possible upset you will get when trying to stop an older child using a dummy.

I was going to do that too...BUT then she started teething and was really suffering. Some how having the dummy soothed her (and me) so she still has one. But now it is only at nap/night times and I will try to get that down to night times and then gone completely. Tbh it wasn't hard taking it away from her in the day time, she didn't look for it or want it - only as a teething toy! And at night time she isn't 'talking' round it and only uses it to settle down before it gets spat out, so I am happy with that.

 

[Squiglet]

lil miss isn't anything.. she was a thumb sucker then a finger sucker then a finger chewer.. I tried a dummy but it wasn't any good...she wasn't having any of it.. she just gagged and vomited..

I was the same when I was little apparently and I turned into a thumb sucker... I sucked my thumb so much that I ended up with buck teeth, then I got pushed over at school and chipped my front tooth... and since then my life has been one painful dentist trip or procedure after another... all because I sucked my thumb... I wish my mum had tried harder to get me to stop...but the thumb is there and well, what can you do... admittedly when it became obvious that the thumb sucking was doing damage, she tried to make me stop.

Lil miss was offered a dummy constantly and I have discouraged her thumb sucking... but at least now she doesn't do anything. She just uses my boob as a dummy

I was lucky with Tia... she had a dummy and has beautiful straight teeth.. Although it was a pain to get rid of it for night times..it was far simpler to throw the dummy away than chop her fingers off

 

[Becky]

The thing is there's no way of knowing if finger/thumb sucking will affect your teeth or not. Out of the 3 of us I sucked my finger, my brother his thumb and my sister didn't have anything and ironically it was my sister who ended up needing a brace to sort her teeth out!

 

[Squiglet]

The thing is there's no way of knowing if finger/thumb sucking will affect your teeth or not. Out of the 3 of us I sucked my finger, my brother his thumb and my sister didn't have anything and ironically it was my sister who ended up needing a brace to sort her teeth out!

Oh I know... thats why I wrote it from my point of view... mind I was 7 by the time I stopped so age might have something to do with it and probably genetics too...

 

[Becky]

That's why I reckon all mums should be provided with a crystal ball that they can use to help make all these decisions - it'd be so much easier if you knew what would happen one way or another

 

[LisaJ1986]

Angel is the 2 finger sucker. She will not even attempt a dummy and can't hold her hands right to suck her thumb. She went through a phase of sucking all the time but she's calmed down a lot. My OH was very anti-dummy but i wanted to give it a go at night to see if i could get a bit longer between feeds but she just will not try it. She gags and spits it out. Total waste of £4! Lol

 

[maybebaby]

I don't like seeing older kids running around with dummies.I figure you can take a dummy away but you can't with a thumb so I'd much prefer he has a dummy.

 

[LisaJ1986]

My older nephew is 4. Coz my middle and younger ones have them he won't give it up. Except when i'm there, he soon hands it over! Lol. It's hard to tell him he can't when the others have one. My sister is persevering with him but he'll snatch off his brothers if he wants it.

 

[Sammystar]

I have two dummy suckers and one thumb sucker and to be honest it makes absolutely no difference either way. As long as it helps LO to settle then that's the main thing.

My eldest daughter had a dummy until she was two and a half, when we 'lost' it It was no problem, she cried for a couple of nights and that was it.

DD number two was and still is a thumb sucker. Her teeth are absolutely normal.

DS has a dummy, and as long as he's teething he can have it as far as I'm concerned I'll probably 'lose' that too at some point after he's turned two.......

 

[Squiglet]

That's why I reckon all mums should be provided with a crystal ball that they can use to help make all these decisions - it'd be so much easier if you knew what would happen one way or another

ooo where you get them from then...

 

[poppy160]

Ella doesn't do either, I'd probably prefer thumb sucking though.

She used to take a dummy for a while, but only because I think I forced one on her in the days where she'd cry all day every day for no reason, and she'd spit it out as soon as I turned my back. She point blank refuses to open her mouth for one now, however she uses a muslin square as a comforter. She won't settle to sleep unless she's chewing one