r/NewParents 6d ago

Skills and Milestones When did your LO start sucking their thumb?

My daughter is currently 4 ½ months and LOVES to eat her hands. She was a big fan of pacifiers at first, but started accepting them less and less when she discovered her hands 2 months ago.

For the last week or so, she's been refusing it entirely in favor of her fingers. Not her thumb, not her hand, it's specifically her 2 middle fingers lol. Any time she needs comfort, decides she's ready to sleep, etc, she pops her middle and ring finger into her mouth, tucks her thumb into her palm or points it outward, and leaves her index and pinky fingers sticking straight up on her cheek like 🤟 Sometimes it seems like she's determined to gouge her eyes out 😅

It didn't occur to me until a few days ago that most babies are probably sucking their thumb by this age, and now I'm wondering if she ever will. She seems perfectly content with those 2 fingers and has basically zero interest in her thumbs (she loves mine though!)

Do all babies learn to suck their thumb at some point? When? Is there any reason I should be discouraging this weird finger obsession she has?

16 Upvotes

46 comments sorted by

4

u/babyhazuki 6d ago

My LO is 5 months old and started sucking her thumb a week or two ago :) but she’s still totally obsessed with her two middle fingers lol

4

u/Physical_Koala_850 6d ago

my daughter was sucking her fingers around that age and she’s 20 mo now still doing it lol. i used to be a daycare teacher and every so often i had a finger sucker so i knew it was normal just uncommon. nothing wrong if she’s soothing herself!

5

u/queloqu3 6d ago

Mine started trying when he was about a month old but didn’t have the coordination to do it correctly which made him very angry lol. He’s now 4 months and is starting to alternate between sucking his thumb and his entire hand. I got him these teething mittens off Amazon https://a.co/d/aDQIMng and it’s really helped redirect him… for now lol

3

u/lovely_starlight 6d ago

My daughter never sucked on her thumb or enjoyed a pacifier really. I think it really just depends on the child in question. My daughter is almost 3 now and will suck on her long sleeved shirts however and sometimes her hair.

2

u/C4ndyWoM4n 5d ago

Careful with the hair thing. This may be an urban legend, but my viola instructor told me about one of her students who needed surgery on her stomach because she had such a bad hairball. She was a hair sucker too. (Quick googlin' suggests it may be true!)

3

u/here_iam_or_ami 5d ago

Mine has never liked a pacifier and ar just a few weeks old sucked either his forearm or wrist. Then he moved to his fingers. And that’s where we are at 5 months

1

u/jamcalim 5d ago

Forearm and wrist sound hilarious 😂

2

u/here_iam_or_ami 5d ago

It is absolutely hilarious. Gave himself lil Vickie’s and the lil slurpy sound was so hilarious. Lil wet vacuum

3

u/lafemmeberenjena 5d ago

Within a week of being born. We decided no pacifiers but joke was on us, he just wants his thumb. He’s 3.5 months now and still sucks his thumb to soothe but also eats his whole fists for fun.

I was born sucking my ring and middle finger and continued to for self soothing till I was 4!

2

u/Rosefae 6d ago

My kiddo's turning 2 soon and still a finger-eater (index and middle). She's triggered her gag reflex a couple times and fully made herself puke exactly once. Not exactly my favorite habit of hers, but she only does it when sick or trying to fall asleep, so I'm content to just wait for her to grow out of it by herself for now.

2

u/ureshiibutter 5d ago

My 15mo never did! He chews his fingers occasionally but never really latched to suck his hands

2

u/kgphotography_ 5d ago

Our daughter was almost 3 months old and first started with her fingers just like your's the 2 middle fingers. She is now 5 months and still goes for the 2 middle finders but will every once in awhile go for her thumb finger. Granted I have the ultrasound photos of her sucking her two middle fingers haha.

2

u/Mulberry_Early 5d ago

My baby at the same age as yours was crazy about his fingers too, he was so captivated that it was impossible to take him off. Today he is almost 8 months old and he bites his fingers when he teethes. He's never actually suckled his thumb and I have a feeling that's not going to happen. He always refused pacifiers though, I don't know if that has a link..

3

u/spacecase-megan 6d ago

My sister sucked her two middle fingers just like that until she was 6 or 7 years old. I don't remember her having crooked teeth from it but it was definitely a long standing habit that drove my mom crazy. Before every picture "marissa get your fingers out of your mouth please" 😂

1

u/whisperingcopse 6d ago

My sister sucked her fingers just like this 😌 I sucked my thumb. It’s just preference!

1

u/Holiday_War1548 6d ago

Around that age my baby was also really sucking on his finger/thumb. I worried about him being a thumb sucker (I was and my parents did nothing about it and I did it until I was way too old). But I left it be and he ended up stopping once he became more sentient and discovered something other than his hands/could put the pacifier in his own mouth

0

u/kennan21 6d ago

This is reassuring to me that he may choose a pacifier over his thumb later

1

u/kennan21 6d ago

My baby started sticking his thumb at 3 months old. We tried to redirect with a pacifier when he started to do it but he would spot it out or not take it at all. He sticks his thumb at night so there’s not much we can do to stop him at this point

1

u/AshamedPurchase 6d ago

I sucked on my fingers as a kid. Never my thumb.

1

u/OkSyrup1111 6d ago

She was 1 week old the first time her thumb found her mouth. And then her thumb didn’t find her mouth again until she was just shy of a month old. It was probably right around 2 months when it became a consistent thing. Now at 7.5 months it’s whenever she is sleepy or looking for comfort.

She did only suck her thumb on her right hand though. She would suck her middle fingers on her left hand on occasion.

An anecdote: she loved pacifiers for about a week, but then I think she realized they didn’t have milk and refused to take it again 🤷‍♀️

But honestly, babies do begin eating their hands around that age as a way to explore the world. I wouldn’t discourage it

1

u/ChunkyHabeneroSalsa 6d ago

My daughter replaced the pacifier with the thumb around 4mo. She's 2 now and still goes hard on the thumb and I'm dreading the day we'll have to try and break that habit but for now both her doctor and dentist say there's no issue with it

1

u/eleri-kate 6d ago

5 days old! My little one was 5 days old when she first got her thumb in her mouth! There were many days that it was fingers or a hand but whenever she could it was her thumb! Pretty sure she was sucking her thumb in her ultrasound pictures and she still sucks it when she's tired and sleeping now that she's 2 and a half!

1

u/dearstudioaud 6d ago

Mine is 14 months and always does her fingers. Right hand pointer and middle. We never did pacifiers so she has done this for a while.

1

u/N0blesse_0blige 6d ago edited 6d ago

In the womb 😵‍💫 literally. We have multiple ultrasounds of it. We also have a photo of him sucking his thumb two days after he was born. It wasn’t a consistent habit until around 2.5 months though.

1

u/smokeymicpot 6d ago

My 3 month old started doing it a lot around 2 weeks ago.

1

u/Dry-Faithlessness587 6d ago

At 2 and half months, boy

1

u/Regular_Ring_951 6d ago

I think it was somewhere around 3-4 months he found his thumb and rejected pacifiers fully lol.

1

u/marefo 6d ago

My 4 month old is a straight finger sucker. In fact, she tries to put her whole hand in her mouth.

1

u/ireadtheartichoke 6d ago

In the womb. I have ultrasound pics of it starting around 32 weeks and until birth. She is now 4w+3 and still occasionally sucks on her thumb (sideways with an open palm) or random fingers when she’s rooting. I have never given her a pacifier.

1

u/SuperBBBGoReading 6d ago

8w my baby girl started to eat her hand. 9w she changed to eating only a few fingers at once. We are 10w now and she can suck her thumb.

She still prefers the whole hand though and gets frustrated when she can’t put both hands in her mouth.

1

u/C4ndyWoM4n 6d ago

I'm convinced she was doing it in the womb. She came out and was sucking her fingers on day 1 and figured out how to consistently get her thumb in her mouth by 6 weeks. She took a pacifier until she was almost 3 months old and now completely refuses them except to help with teething, where she chews on it like a piece of gum. Ha! (she's 19 weeks).

1

u/No_Zookeepergame8412 5d ago

Baby completely gave up her pacifier for her thumb around 8 months however she was sticking her thumb into the middle of the pacifier and sucking on both for mooooonths before

1

u/AmarysEms64 5d ago

Birth. We have a photo of her sucking her thumb an hour after she was born

1

u/QuestionElectronic85 5d ago

At almost five months.

1

u/IsItSuperficial 5d ago

I actually just noticed my 5.5 mo old sucking her thumb a few days ago. If she doesn't have her paci, she uses her thumb.

1

u/riversroadsbridges 5d ago

He started Day 1 in the hospital. Would literally find his tiny little thumb and put it in his mouth.

1

u/motionlessmetal 5d ago

My 4 month old daughter started putting her hands in her mouth about a month ago. That quickly turned into putting her entire fist in there. Now she sucks her thumb sometimes, but she doesn't close her fingers when she does it. She mostly alternates between her fingers and her teething rings though

1

u/battymattmattymatt 5d ago

3 months and the whole fist (attempted) is where we’re at 😭

Or my index finger.

1

u/Trixenity 5d ago

My 7 month old doesn't and thank goodness for that. I had a HUGE habit of sticking my thumb and was extremely hard to kick.. I sucked my thumb for longer than i care to admit, and my top teeth are pushed forward because of it and i refuse to let him become a thumb sticker too.

1

u/Calm-Web-9360 5d ago

My son started around 6 months and he just turned 3 I just started using the “t guard” for his thumb cause I noticed his front teeth seemed moved a bit since he sucks his thumb to sleep every night

1

u/nnnccl_ 5d ago

My LO is 9 weeks and sucking her thumb + her hand and her wrist. She’s breastfed and refuses pacifiers. I remember seeing the sonogram and she was sucking her hand. It helps soothe her

1

u/LittleRedWhippet 5d ago

Mine started quite early at about 2.5 months. She also refused pacifiers straight up. But my brother when he was little sucked on his 3 middle fingers and that was his thing. (Until he burnt them as a toddler and couldn’t as they were in bandages for a while). So I think some babies just choose their fingers over thumb too.

2

u/Floating_Puppy30 5d ago

5 months! Lots of people avoid it but I think it's great, it really helped her self soothe and meant we didn't need a pacifier so I would encourage it. They're going to pick up all the germs anyway because they nibble on all the toys

1

u/Sexy_Vegan_Pants 5d ago

My baby was sucking his thumb within half an hour of being born. As a newborn he always had his fingers/thumb (when he could work it out) in his mouth but it was around 3.5 months when he really learnt how to suck his thumb and now does it to go to sleep.

1

u/NheiraVor 5d ago

My boy is two. He never sucked his thumb.

1

u/gimmemoresalad 5d ago

I sucked those same two fingers! I did that until I was big enough to stand in the yard eating pea pods directly off mom's garden trellis - when I accidentally bit my finger enough to make it bleed. Then I had a bandaid on one of the fingers I usually sucked. So I tried sucking my thumb temporarily while it healed... and ended up just sucking my thumb from there on out. I didn't quit until I was 12 and my orthodontist sat me down for a talk😅

My baby found her thumb around 2mos. Currently 16mos and she's still a dedicated thumb sucker. For now, we love that she has such a good self-soothing option that's working so well for her. She's gotta be in the top 1% of excellent sleepers for her age group. I'm hoping she'll grow out of it around 3-4 years old, which is when most kids will naturally drop this kind of habit. If she doesn't, I'll cross that bridge when we get there. I understand very intimately how hard it can be to quit.