Should I intervene with my 8mth DS's thumb sucking?

[hawkeye1315]

My 8mth DS has sucked his thumb since he was 5 mths old.  His poor little thumb has a permanent callous and the skin is raw.  To promote healing of his thumb, I put a mutt on his hand, but this only aggravated him.  Should I leave well enough alone and let him use his thumb for comfort?  Or should I intervene and attempt to wean him off it?  If so, how should I go about doing this?

TIA

[owelley]

Alot of babies who thumbsuck get these callouses.  The raw part will eventually callous over.

[Diegos Mama]

My thumbsucker is much older, but I've taught him (finally) to use both thumbs.  He switches to the other when the first becomes too raw.  My son always has a callous too.  I used to use the lanolin nipple cream on it when it was really bad.  I noticed that putting on that cream, then a bandaid during the daytime to keep the cream in place really helped a lot.

You might try introducing a pacifier now.  If he'll take it you'll alleviate the callous problem.  If he can learn to find them in his crib and put them in alone there shouldn't be any sleep disruptions from the pacifier.

HTH.

[*Kimberly*]

My lo is 9 months and his thumb is always in his mouth.  I am not sure how he has managed to not get a callous but he does not have one.  I know a lot of people have something against thumb sucking and think that it is an awful habit for a child to have but I am not one of those people.  I sucked my thumb for years, even until my teens years (on occasion as a comforting technique) and I turned out okay.  Yes, I needed braces but so did other people who never sucked their thumbs.  I am slowly trying to encourage my lo to only suck his thumb during naps and bedtime.  I try not to make a big deal out of it but I will pull his thumb from his mouth and say "not now" and then try to distract him.  I don't want it to become something where he feels like he is being bad by sucking his thumb.

Kimberly

[nursekat]

Just wanted to let you know my DH is a dentist and thumb sucking is considered "ok" but LOs should be weaned by around 4-5yrs so they do not have further dental problems later in life.

[hawkeye1315]

Thanks for everyones help!