Itty Bitty has a new best friend:
His left thumb.
He has been sucking his thumb for over two months now, and I’ve heard several reactions.
Thumb sucking, oddly enough, has turned out to be quite the divisive subject among parents.
Some think it’s cute and useful for self soothing. Whereas others have told me that he is starting a terrible, gross, and unsanitary bad habit. One of the many suggestions people offer is to give him a pacifier.
The truth is – babies (as well as other primates) have a sucking reflex. It’s inherently part of their composition. But, most importantly, for whatever inexplicable reason, my tiny baby prefers his thumb over any pacifier. We tried almost every variety at our local Baby’s R Us, and it was all an Epic Fail. He just gnawed on it like a bad piece of flank steak.
So is it cute and useful? Or is it a bad, gross habit? I have no idea. My kid likes it and I’m cool with it. It could be worse, he could love sucking his toes…oh wait…he does that too…oops. Whatever.
Ultimately, I’m not worried. I’ve read that statistically, thumb sucking stops by the time they are five years old – which is fantastic – because thumb sucking AFTER a child’s permanent teeth come in (around that age) can cause some serious dental problems.
In my eyes, I think the thumb-sucking is just plain old cute. For now, that is.
Itty Bitty has colic, cries for over 4 hours a day, and has found something that somewhat soothes him. That’s a positive in any book.
So, in the end, this momma gives two big Siskel and Ebert style thumbs-up to Itty Bitty and his new best friend – the left thumb.
Did you suck your thumb or fingers as a baby/kid? How long did you do it for?
For most baby suck thumb is very normal
kid cloth