5 Months Old Daughter Sucks Thumb While Sleeping Only

Not too much you can do on this one. My daughter sucked her thumb I tried different pacifiers and she refused to take them.

As another poster mentioned, she must have been sucking her thumb prior to being born but did not have a blister on it.

At some point she will out grow her thumb. Just be patient it is not the end of the world.

the other S.

Whether a child does this as an infant or a toddler has no bearing on whether they will do it until age 10.

I don't see that there's much you can do about it at this point.

I think the self-soothing is more important and it's certainly a comforting sensation in an infant.

My kid sucked his thumb during sleep too, and yes he needed braces, but he probably would have anyway. I think there are things you can do with an older child but I wouldn't interrupt it at this point (not sure you can anyway, short of staying up all night).

My niece was born with a blood blister on her thumb. The doc said she was sucking it before she was born. He also said it was something my niece needed or she wouldn't have been doing it so much that it made a blister.

I suggest you leave your child alone and let her do what nature is making her do. She obviously needs this and you won't be able to fight it, I mean, after all what will you do? Tie her hands behind her back? There isn't anything you can do. She will continue to bring it to her mouth each time she dozes off and when you remove it she'll fuss then as soon as you go away it will go back in. You can sit there and keep it out but she won't sleep and neither will you.

sounds to me like one of the best and most natural self-soothing techniques an infant can devise.
my younger sucked his thumb when he was tired or stressed until he was about 5 or so. he had a big ol' callous on it. he did end up with braces, but not because his teeth looked wonky. the oral surgeon said it's very unlikely that thumb-sucking had anything to do with it.
you can try to stop her if you're okay with a miserable fretful baby who doesn't sleep. i myself would not.
khairete
S.

I would not worry about it at this age. If she gets past pacifier use age and still sucks her thumb, then work on it. I would not discourage it at only 5 months old.

Further, you may stop it now and still have dental problems just due to genetics. My sister, mother, and I (and I suspect my daughter, too) all have two teeth that overlap the same way. I would worry about that when the dentist tells you to.

It's her thumb - you can't take it away!
You could try getting her to use a pacifier instead - then you'll have to take it away once you feel she's old enough to give it up - but some kids just don't take to binkies no matter what you try.
She may or may not suck her thumb as long as you did.
It's one of those things we Moms just don't have control over.

Our son was a thumb sucker until he was about 4 yrs old.
It didn't hurt his teeth any.
He did have a few years in braces but that was because he inherited some of my dental issues (and I spent 7 YEARS in braces and had 8 adult teeth extracted (this was before expanders were invented)).

It is hereditary - as are the issues with teeth and face. I always hate to see people dog on thumb sucking - in our family it is present in every generation and most of us have nearly perfectly straight teeth too (I got a new dentist once as an adult and he was shocked I'd never had braces). We all quit at a reasonable age and mostly only did it at night. No one ever made an issue of it, it was perfectly natural.

What you decide to do is up to you, I just always feel like I have to stand up for us thumb suckers. There's such a ridiculous stigma attached to it. If it soothes baby and helps them sleep through the night (as it did my son, he found his thumb at 6 weeks old and slept through the night ever after) then let's not demonize it. I'd rather deal with that than see a 2 year old walking around with a pacifier stuck to their face.

If it's only while she's sleeping, leave it alone. Perhaps ease her thumb out gently when you see it in, but I don't think there's much you could do if you're all asleep.

People can have badly aligned teeth even if they don't suck their thumb.

If you're going to pull her thumb out, be prepared to offer up a different way for her to be soothed - rocking her, or rubbing back, etc. Personally, I wouldn't bother. Teeth aren't even an issue with thumb sucking until after age 4, and even that's debatable.

Babies need to suck - not just for feeding but for self soothing. Many babies without soothers or thumb will keep sucking at the breast longer than it takes to be fed - because they need the soothing.

As for hereditary - not sure on that. My brother sucked his thumb (straight teeth) and neither of my parents did, nor did his kids.

My nephew showed up on his ultrasound picture as sucking his thumb in the womb. Seems easier than a soother (I remember trying to find a lost soother in the middle of the night, or worse, they'd be lying on it and wake up).

I can see why you'd be concerned (where you had teeth concerns) but at this stage of the game, I'd be more into her feeling secure and content :)

Good luck

Self soothers are awesome babies. That thumb is always available. Never gets lost! Just let her enjoy.

Why would you assume that something she does at five months, she will continue to do when she's ten? She wets herself now - do you worry that she will be wertting herself at ten?
Thumb sucking at five months is perfectly normal. You're borrowing trouble.

So, I have been using Mavela a bitter tasting nail polish on my 5 year old, it is helping somewhat. 5 months is way to early to worry about this though, when she is a little under a year, the suck reflex becomes less significant and she might stop on her own. Maybe try and get her to use a pacifier because that is easier to take away later.

My almost 10 year old continues to suck her thumb. I CAN'T stand it. For 6 years now, I have been saying, "You are too old this year and need to stop".

The only time she does it is when she is tired. We usually have her wear a sock on her hand. Of course, she won't put a sock on her hand on her own. So when she is in the car or on the couch, we try to have her put the sock on right away. Yes, there is a sock tucked in the backrest of the front seat.

She stopped using a pacifier, eventually refusing it and moving on to her thumb.

She does need braces, but her teeth are not so horrible. She could actually get away without them, but they could use some evening out.

There are some people and kids that know about her thumb sucking and there are some that she would just die if they found out.