If your baby or toddler sucks their thumb or fingers when they sleep, you may be wondering whether you should be encouraging it…or discouraging it.
The truth is that most babies who find their thumb (or fingers) become really good sleepers because they know how to self-soothe. And their self-soothing strategy is attached to them and can be found at any time during the night or at naptime.
Most children only use their thumb for a few minutes just to help them get into the first stages of sleep, so they’re not sucking their thumb throughout the entire night.
Some children will suck their thumb only during sleep times, and not at all during the day. While other children will suck their thumb more regularly and it can become a bit of a habit. And this might be a cause of concern for some parents.
My advice is to give your child until around the age of three. If your child is still sucking their thumb at this point, you may want to gently start discouraging it.
Here are a few tips to encourage your child to give up the thumb (or fingers):
Plan a Trip to the Dentist
It may be helpful to have your dentist explain to your child the importance of healthy teeth and how thumb sucking can cause some dental problems. Sometimes hearing it from an authoritative figure (and someone other than mom or dad) has a bigger impact.
Behaviour Modification
You can do some behaviour modification around thumb sucking. Explain to your child that thumb sucking is for bedtime and not to be used during the day. Then if you catch them sucking their thumb during the day, give them a gentle reminder and try re-directing them with a toy, activity, drink of water, or snack.
Reward Charts
Reward charts can also be helpful. Your child gets to mark on the chart when they’ve gone a day without sucking their thumb and then they get a small reward of some kind. At this age, it’s important to have an instant reward in order for them to make the connection (no thumb sucking = reward).
…But wouldn’t it be easier if I used a pacifier instead?
If you’re thinking that maybe it would just be easier to use a pacifier and avoid this altogether, here are a few things about pacifiers in comparison to thumb sucking:
1) A baby or toddler who uses a pacifier won’t sleep as well. When a child falls asleep with a pacifier in his mouth, it’ll inevitably fall out while he’s sleeping. Then when he has a naturally occurring wake-up throughout his sleep cycle, he’s going to have to search around the crib for his pacifier – or maybe it’s even fallen out of the crib! And by the time he’s found it (or someone else has found it for him) and fallen back asleep, he’s had a full wake up and has missed out on time he could have been sleeping. And when this happens several times a night, it can really start to add up.
2) Once your child is a toddler and has formed an emotional attachment to their pacifier, you may face the same challenges trying to break that habit as you would thumb sucking anyways.
So, my advice to you it is let your child suck their thumb or fingers – at least during sleep! They’re going to sleep great (as will you) and, if you need to, use the above tips to help break the habit once they’re old enough.
If your child’s pacifier is causing nighttime wake-ups, short naps, or both and you’re ready to help them develop self-soothing strategies so everyone can start getting some sleep, let’s chat.
Schedule a free, no obligation call today to learn how I can help your family get the sleep you need and deserve.