Good Baby TipsTips for keeping your baby happy and healthy

Sucking is a child’s inherent need. According to Vicki Lansky in Complete Pregnancy & Baby Book, Nonnutritive sucking (that is, sucking for pleasure and not for nutrition) is one of the baby’s first means of exploration. Babies use their mouths for exploring the world by touching and tasting objects.

Rosemarie Van Norman is a Certified Orofacial Myologist - an expert in thumb and finger sucking. She says, “Thumb-sucking actually makes the brain produce endorphins, which calm the body and give the child pleasure-almost like that feeling of satisfaction you get after eating a big meal. There’s an actual change in body chemistry that takes place when a child sucks his thumb.” (Click for source)

 
What to do if my baby sucks his thumb?
The main reason that a baby sucks his thumb is that he hasn’t had enough sucking at the breast or bottle to satisfy his sucking needs. Every baby varies in his sucking instincts. Most start it before three months of age but some start to thumb suck in the delivery room and keep at it. Some are even seen in an ultrasound, inside the womb, sucking their thumbs. It might be an instinct running in the family.

It is not a matter of concern if the baby sucks his thumb for only a few minutes before his feeding time. He is probably hungry. It becomes a cause of concern when he tries to get his thumb just as soon as his feed is over, or when he sucks a lot between feeds. This means that his sucking desire is not being fulfilled and it would be a good idea to let him suck on the bottle or breast for a few extra minutes. You should also think of ways to satisfy his sucking desire, for instance, by giving him a dummy or pacifier. The most effective method, by far, to prevent thumb sucking is the ample use of the dummy/pacifier in first 3 months because the baby’s need to suck is strongest during that period.

Is there a difference in the tendency of breast-fed babies and bottle-fed babies to become thumb suckers?
In his book, Baby and Child Care, Dr. Benjamin Spock expresses the opinion that breast-fed babies are less likely to become thumb suckers. This is because the baby gets the maximum amount of milk in the first 5-6 minutes of feeding and nurses on the breast for several more minutes just to satisfy his desire. On the other hand, a bottle-fed baby, after finishing his bottle in a few minutes does not suck on it for long either because he does not like to take in air or the mother removes the bottle when it’s empty.

For breast-fed babies who become thumb suckers, try to keep the baby at each breast for as long as he wants. If he doesn’t want to nurse any longer, there is nothing you can do about it except offering him the other breast and keeping him there for as long as he desires. For bottle-fed babies, thumb sucking starts when the baby starts to finish his bottle in 10 minutes instead of 20. To avoid this it is recommended to often change the rubber teats that allow air to enter the bottle. When they become old and loose and let air come in, the baby can finish the milk quicker. When the bottle is more air-tight it will take the child longer to finish it. This practice should be kept up for at least the first 6 months.

For thumb suckers, drop feeds slowly.
It is not only the length of each feed but the number of feeds given to a baby that determine his thumb sucking too. With such babies it is advisable to drop feeds slowly. A child might be content with sleeping through a feed time with a lot of thumb sucking. In this scenario that particular feed time should not be dropped rapidly as the child’s thumb sucking indicates that he is feeling hungry.

Does thumb sucking affect a child’s teeth or thumbs?
As many parents are concerned, thumb sucking does not affect a child’s permanent teeth. True, thumb sucking can result in pushing the upper milk teeth forward and the lower teeth back (depending on the frequency of sucking and the position the thumb is held in,) but it does not affect the permanent teeth that start to appear around 6 years of age.

Some parents also worry that if a child sucks on his thumb it will not grow properly. That is not true, it might become sore and soggy due to the enzymes in the saliva that cause a mild dermatitis, but according to Dr. Hilary Jones, that can be easily cured by cortisone creams.  (Click for source)

Why do babies suck their thumbs beyond 6 months?
Up till now, the discussion of thumb sucking was related to babies less than 6 months. If a baby continues to suck his thumb beyond this age, it is not due to hunger but because he finds comfort in the act. Babies older than 6 months often have a desire to return to the state when they had a close bond with the mother and nestled at her breast. Simultaneously they also want to preserve the freedom they acquire when they leave breast feeding. Thumb sucking then works as a comforter when the baby is tired, bored or frustrated.
  
Isn’t it better if a child is prevented from thumb sucking as soon as he shows the first signs?
If your baby starts thumb, finger or hand sucking, it is not preferable to stop him directly. This habit usually tapers off itself in a few months. Some parents try to put restraints on children, for instance tying down a baby’s arms or putting aluminum mittens on them. In mild cases of thumb sucking this might prove helpful but it does not cure permanent thumb suckers because as soon as the restraints are taken off, the baby puts his thumb back in his mouth. Sometimes babies also suck and chew their tongue when they do not have anything else to suck on. This practice is called ruminating. It often happens when the baby cannot access his thumb. It is strongly advised to let such a baby suck on this thumb instead of his tongue so that ruminating does not become a habit.

Doctors have observed that other techniques such as elbow splints, mitts and bad-tasting stuff only makes the child miserable, doesn’t make him stop and in some cases, actually prolongs the habit. So if your child is still sucking his thumb beyond the age of six, do not scold him or jump forward to pull his thumb out of his mouth every time. Instead, it would be a good idea to keep things around (toys for example) to distract the child into forgetting about sucking his thumb.

Should parents worry?
Parents often worry needlessly about their baby’s thumb sucking. If the child is generally active, outgoing and happy, which most thumb suckers are and as it has been noticed, children severely deprived of affection don’t thumb-suck, the parents need not worry. If a child is sucking his thumb for a great deal of time the parents should think of things they can do so that the child doesn’t need to comfort himself so much. For example, maybe he is bored and needs other children’s company, or perhaps he’s scolded too often and needs a little more freedom to do what he likes etc. The most important thing for parents is not to keep worrying constantly about their baby’s thumb sucking. This would lead them to nag him all the time and even if they don’t, the child would feel their anxiety and react to it. Thumb sucking, in an overwhelming number of cases, peters out itself between the ages of 3 and 6.