Thumb v. Pacifier v. Neither...

[AfricanQueen99]

Where do you stand and why?

[geo_girl]

I prefer the thumb simply because they can't lose it!

Our first DD found her thumb early and sucks it when going to sleep. DS *LOVED* his soother but kept on losing it when going to sleep - frustrating for everyone. I finally took the soother away (cold turkey), and he has since learned to put himself to sleep other ways.

I have tried the soother with DD#2, but she has no interest....and I'm OK with that! ...one less thing to keep track of and (try to keep) clean. ;-)

are you trying a paci? Hey, if it works, use it!

[AfricanQueen99]

Neither one took a binky, but I am *dying* for Griffin to find his thumb. He's sooo close...and then won't suck on my pinky all the time!

[jillmamma]

Thumb is definitely easier to keep track of, but harder to get them to stop. My 4.5 year old is still a thumb sucker, and I don't see her stopping any time soon. My oldest and Marissa are both "neither", using a breast for comfort instead. My second was sucking her thumb a few minutes after birth, and has been ever since.

[littlemizflava]

i say nothing. no soother to loose, forget or replace, no dirty soother or hands in their mouth, no trying to talk around thumb or soother. if they never have had a thumb or soother to suck on then they dont need to "learn" to sooth themselves in other ways.
forgot about breastfeeding no confusion between soother/thumb and breast

[nola79]

I'm going with neither! I sucked my thumb for an embarassingly long time. Way past toddlerhood. DS LOVED his binky. LOVED it. But it was hard to keep up with, he talked around it, etc.
Emma does not do either one. She'll take the binky at night, but she sucks to sleep then spits it out. She can take it or leave it, we don't have to have it every time we leave the house.
Interestingly enough, she found her thumb as soon as she was born, but has not found it since. I guess time will tell if she ends up sucking it or not.

[hakeber]

Anything that helps my kid sleep that isn't toxic is okay with me.

At the moment Emily will take a pacifier happliy (especially in the car seat where her fingers are less accessible), but sometimes if she has spat it out and she stirs and fusses, she will find her hand before I get to her. She sucks her two middle fingers...but when she is super tired she has a hard time getting to them, so I give her the Paci.

DS spat his out at about 5 or 6 mo and never looked back and he really needed it to sleep before that. On the other extreme I sucked my thumb until I was 13...but I really think it did me no harm, so if this is what Emily needs to soothe herself to sleep I have no problem with that.

[momto9kidlets]

I prefer the thumb or finger, but have found that in some of my kids they either get it or they don't. If they don't get it and need to suck and I can't be there for them to suckle at the breast then a pacifier will do. Out of the nine kids I have had three thumb/finger suckers, five pacifier suckers and one that took neither.

I like the thumb/fingers because they never lose them and they can pop them in whenever they feel the need to suck. However I hate it as they get older because I have seen my kids put some pretty gross (dirty) hands in their mouth while playing outside and it is harder to break them of it.

The pacifier - well like I said it can get lost, they can get costly to replace if you lose them regularly (which we do), but they are easier to break of and in my house less likely to put a dirty one in my child's mouth since we have many of them so if one falls down and is gross we can just give a clean one.

[StrawberryFields]

I prefer a pacifier and WISH my dd would take one. But alas, only my ds took to the pacifier. My two girlies were both just not interested. I keep trying with dd2 though!

I prefer the pacifier because you can take it away when they get older. Thumb, not so much. I was a thumbsucker when I was a child and it is a hard, hard habit to break!! Plus you can clean a paci, wash it, etc... with a thumb as they get older they have their hands all over the dirt and floor and in gosh knows what. And finally, a really worked up baby might not have the presence of mind to stick their thumb in their mouth to calm down. I like that I can offer the pacifier easier than trying to wrestle a crying baby's hand into its mouth.

And when it comes to pacifier vs. nothing I am just totally on the pacifier side. Any time I can have another tool to help calm and soothe an upset baby, I'm all over it. It's especially great for car rides!! Wish I could convince dd to feel the same way!!

[hakeber]

Strawberry fields, this may seem like a daft question, but have you tried different shapes? DS only ONLY liked the round bulb shaped ones...all others might as well have been made of crap. he;d look at you like "what is THAT?" and spit it as far as his tiny mouth could manage.

[caefi]

prefer thumb.
my four girls were all finger suckers - 3thumb, 1pointer finger. They sucked their fingers until 4-7yo and only the finger sucker has any damage to her teeth.
my four older boys used ME as a pacifer and that was exhausting and didn't delay the return of fertility, so I don't vote "neither" - lol!

btw, we offered a pacifier to each child. Two of the girls took it until 1yo, when it disapeared and they began finger sucking instead. In retrospect we think they were always sucking their finger, after the paci fell out in the night. It was all too easy to ditch the paci!

for ending thumbsucking, 3 were bribed and 1 made the decision on her own b/c her thumb was getting chapped and it hurt.

So far, Matthew likes his paci and has found his thumb a few times. He is a "high suck needs" baby and it was too much for me to try to keep up with that with nursing. I was sitting with him on the breast all day - literally!!! I did wait until he was 5wks to offer the paci, though. I was counting down the days.

[StrawberryFields]

Originally Posted by hakeber

Strawberry fields, this may seem like a daft question, but have you tried different shapes? DS only ONLY liked the round bulb shaped ones...all others might as well have been made of crap. he;d look at you like "what is THAT?" and spit it as far as his tiny mouth could manage.

I've only tried the Soothie and the Born Free, which have really different nipple shapes. It was a no go on either of them and now that she's 2.5 months old I don't know if it is worth investing any more money at this point? I don't think she is a high needs comfort sucker and maybe that is part of it. My ds would nurse and nurse and nurse until I was just crawling the ceiling. He loved his pacifier. Neither dd1 or dd2 is like that.

[CrunchyMamaToBe]

I don't like the idea of pacifiers, but we have tried them with both kids. Neither have been interested. We offered one to DS when he was about 3 months when he 1. discovered he could suck on his fingers and 2. was having trouble keeping them in his mouth when falling asleep. But no dice.

With Ella, we have offered, keep offering, when she is upset in the car, but it just seems to make her angrier and angrier until it falls out/we take it out. She sucks her fingers occasionally.

[Kidzaplenty]

I prefer neither.

With my first few I tried the sucky, but it always got lost and was frustrating for those that had to have it. My son used his thumb, and now, even as a teenager, when in deep sleep he still does suck it (even though he does not want to do it but he can't seem to stop). My brother, that was a thumb sucker as a child will still suck his thumb when in deep sleep (even at over 40).

I have found that me being the passy is much better, because it is a habit that will end at some point and will not damage their teeth.

[rlmueller]

Fingers for my first and at 6 he still does. Paci for my girl in the car (for the 6 year olds sake) and at fussy time 7pm--nothing for sleep.

[smokeylo]

Originally Posted by hakeber

Anything that helps my kid sleep that isn't toxic is okay with me.

that's how i feel... i'd be happy if holly found her hand/thumb but for now i'm pretty pleased with the paci.

[~Christina~]

Definitely paci. Maggie was a thumb sucker for the first 3 weeks and we pushed the paci until we found one she would take. I would much prefer she comfort nursed, but she gets really angry if she's sucking and my milk lets down when she's not hungry. I've tried and tried to get her to nurse instead of the paci and it just makes her more upset.

[Mawood]

Olivia won't take the paci. I tried different ones but she spits them out. If I try and hold them for her she seems to gag. She is constantly sucking on something though (fist, fingers, my nipples, not thumb yet) and I believe it would help her if she could use the paci. By the way what is a soothie?

[~Adorkable~]

since i don't have kids yet,t he only thing i will add to this talk is a comment about sucking on lips. i sucked on my bottom lip as i was growing and my happily crunchy mom thought it was fine cause it was a natural part of me. well it wasn't, it completely reshaped my jaw tot he point that i could not speak clearly. it took 7 years of ortho works and speech therapy to get my mouth working normal.
i had no known issues prior to getting my teeth in, but once i had them the force of the sucking against them and my jaw growing were at odds.

so just a warning to keep a keen eye out once babies get teeth and please don't think that just because something is not toxic, that it does not have side effects.

[marinak1977]

DS takes a paci sometimes when he wants to comfort suck but the milk is making him upset. He doesn't depend on it though and it only comes out when he really needs help falling asleep. He lets go of it in his sleep and I put it away or switch to the boob. So far so good. We use a Tommee Tippee paci and I like it