DD is 4 months old and is ebf. Around 2 months old she started to suck her fingers (sometimes a thumb). This was a shock to me as dd1 (now 6) only pacified herself at my breast. The finger sucking is mostly during the day when she is awake - she doesn't do it while sleeping. I am attributing the finger sucking to the fact that we are a much busier family than when dd1 was an infant and this new babe occassionally has to wait for me to get done helping her sister or some other thing before I can pick her up and soothe her.
However, the last couple days have been a real struggle. She had my full attention all day. She didn't have to wait for me for anything. She was in my arms, in the sling or right next to me all day and all she did was put those fingers in her mouth. The problem that I am worried about is that she is not eating for more than a 2-3 minutes and then pops of to put the fingers back in her mouth. (She usually latches on for a good 10-15 minutes) I tried to discourage it and I tried to get her latched back on but she would get frustrated and still only want the fingers. I suppose if she was really hungry she would let me know. But I am feeling a little rejected. Could finger (or thumb) sucking interfer with breastfeeding? Could this lead to early child-led weaning? Should I be discouraging the finger sucking? I breastfed dd1 until she was 2.5 years, I would hate to see this breastfeeding realtionship end early as I attribute a lot of dd1's health, disposition and intelligence to breastfeeding.
