Pacifiers and Thumbs

On Thursday I put out the question to a few friends about pacifiers. There are multiple theories but the pacifier has been great for us. At about 2 or 3 weeks, Lily really wanted to suck even though she wasn't hungry. After trying a couple, we found one that worked; it soothed and helped her fall asleep. Now in week 5, she cries when it falls out of her mouth as she is falling asleep. So the question came, do I keep putting the pacifier back in when she cries, or do I let her learn to soothe herself and put herself to sleep? I chose to put the pacifier back in; mostly for my sanity.


The next morning, I found that she had pulled her arms out of the swaddle, and was sucking on her thumb. Not her fist, but her actual thumb.

Now I have to decide if I want to let her soothe herself with her thumb, and break the habit later, or continue with the pacifier knowing that I may need to put it back in, but it means she isn't sucking her thumb. Thumbs are cute, they always have it with them, and it doesn't drop on the ground and get dirty. However, I am a perfect example that thumb sucking can lead to expensive dental work - I had to have braces to fix my severe overbite due (in part) to my thumbsucking.

Later in the day, however, I watched her bring her fist up to her mouth and knock the pacifer out so she could put her thumb in. This decision may not be so cut and dry.

Later she tried desperately to get to her thumb. We took a short video for Pe-Pa who often feels he gets left out with the pix messages.

We'll see what happens.