Thumbsucking and Pacifiers

Motek

Tue, Sep 21 2004, 3:51 pm

My 12 year old niece is going to get braces this week. By sucking her thumb when she was younger, she messed up her mouth.

The oldest four sucked their thumbs and at least one other child also severely misshaped her palate.

My sister wised up with her next child and made sure he didn't suck his thumb.

The Natural Jewish Parenting magazine had an article on this in issue #9. The author, an "Orofacial Myologist" says that although babies need to suck, it becomes a habit for older children, a habit that can "act as a deterrent to the normal growth and development of skeletal, facial, and lip structure, nasal cavity, tooth alignment, tooth eruption," etc.

She thinks that the problem sets in with thumbsucking after the age of 4, but if a parent waits that long to do something about it, they are up against a formidable habit!

Shouldn't a practice that children (who don't know any better) take on, which leads to damage to one's body and later entails expensive orthodontia, and is a habit that is very hard to get rid of, be discouraged by parents from the earliest ages?

Thumb sucking seems worse than using a pacifier because the thumb is always there, whereas pacifiers can disappear ...

amother

Tue, Sep 21 2004, 9:28 pm

I think thumbsucking should be discouraged, I sucked my thumb as a child and never was able to break the habit. Once they are are 1 I would try to break the habit at that point I don't think they need that extra sucking. I make sure to nurse my kids whenever they want to suck. They both never took a pacifier or thumb but that could be by chance.

miriam

Sun, Sep 26 2004, 9:27 pm

I do the same thing with nursing instead of a using a pacifier. I say I am the motzez (pacifier). Sometimes I wish the baby would take a pacifier in the middle of the night when I know she doesn't need to nurse b/c she just did one hour before that. During the day, she loves teething on it and playing with it.

Pickle Lady

Thu, Oct 21 2004, 3:43 pm

I nursed both my sons on demand and they don't use oacifers or suck their thumb. I have heard that their is much less less chaance a cild will suck their thumg take a pacifer if they are nursed. I guess hashem knows whats best for our kids... OUR MILK

I have seen older kids with pacifers like 4 and 5. also I have seen teenagers suck their thumb.

micki

Thu, Oct 21 2004, 5:13 pm

I have a friend who while we were in seminary sucked her thumb at night. she was my roomamte for a while and I knew when she was upset- she would suck her thumb...
babies need to suck in order to stimulate the digestive enzymes to break down the food in their tummies. but if they grink milk while sucking whats the point. soi use a pacifier.

my 3 yr old still has a pacifier. my 4 yr old stopped when she was 3 1/2
she got ear infectons and the doc said the fluid build up is related to pacifiers. scince she was old enough to understand the connection, she stopped. she hated the ear infection...

zuncompany

Thu, Oct 21 2004, 5:13 pm

With Zu he didn't take a pacifier. I was so sick from always being the pacifier that my ob told me to teach him to take one. His ped agreed. It made a huge difference.
Tev is a thumbsucker. He was from 12 weeks gestation on (I know cause we caught him at 12 weeks and every u/s after he had the thumb in the mouth!). I didn't want this habit. So, my ped recommended giving him a pacifier and maybe he will stop. It worked. Now he doesn't need either much at all. He is happy with me every 2-3 hours during the day and every 4-6 at night. B"H for him!
Sara

Chanie

Tue, Oct 26 2004, 1:27 pm

my son was sucking his thumb when we saw him in the ultrasound, but never had a problem with it after birth. However I do give him a pacifier. For the first week of life I let him use me as a pacifier, but it was a constant thing, like litterally for an hour straight, and only break for a short time. The woman in the hospital who came to check if I was nursing properly, if the baby was latching on, told me that this child is going to need a pacifier. I was stubborn, I heard that pacifiers can mess up breast feeding, so I didn't give him one. Then the mohel requested one for the bris, so I went and bought one... my son latched on to it right away, and his feeding was never harmed.
When he was around a year old I passed a 3/4 year old using a pacifier asnd it scared me, since that day I only allow my son to use it at night, but still if he finds one it goes straight in his mouth.
Pacifiers however dont have the effect on the teeth like sucking the thumb, most pacifiers are orthopedic.

Nechama

Tue, Oct 26 2004, 11:22 pm

Two of my children sucked their thumbs from birth to 6 months and then stopped.
One took a pacifier.

I can't tell you how many times I actually stuck that thumb in their mouths after they quit lol, :::weak mommy praying for quiet::: It didn't work. They wouldn't suck, they were done.
I actually don't understand the concept of pacifiers. They don't stay in so the mom holds it in?! At least in the people I see with babies who use them.
My daughter took the 'tuhtuh' (for suskuh) when she weaned (at 2), and used it for a few months. She is 11 and still loves drinking a baby bottle! When she gets the chance (which is not often lol).

ForeverYoung
Guest

Tue, Nov 02 2004, 1:52 am

one of my kids took pacyfier, but spit it out around 9 months when he realised that if he takes it, nothing else is coming. My other kids refused pacyfier with much passion. My youngest now sucks her thumb occasionally. I try to see if she's hungry, but if not, what can I do? She gets insulted at the rubber.

A little anti-thumb trick - put a thik glove one (for an oler child) - this is how my grand-ma-in-law trained my sister-in-law to cut the habbit Smile

; for a younger child - put somethng yaki on it - rub with the inside of a fresh aloe leaves (they're good for the skin too)

hadasa

Sun, Nov 07 2004, 3:18 pm

My oldest had a pacifier till 9 months, when I decided to take it away. Big mistake. After a while he started sucking his tongue - VERY hard habit to break - unlike a thumb, you can't even pull it out of his mouth, and it looks awful. He's nearly over it by now (at age ten!) but will revert when tired or upset.
The next three I served as their only pacifier, but when no. 5 came along, it got too taxing.
Now I give pacifiers, but from about a year old, they get the pacifier only in bed. This works well, makes them go to bed happily, and they are pacifier-free most of the day.
DON'T ask me about weaning, though. No.5 is four, and still sleeps with his sussy.

Rivka

Wed, Nov 17 2004, 6:35 pm

I used to suck my fingers till I was 7 only coz the dentist told me what would happen and I didn't need braces and my mouth is pretty normal.
I did give my son a soother coz I didn't want to be used as a pacifier while feeding him. He is nearly two but I will not take it away from, him until he is old enough to understand why I am doing it at the moment he can't talk he has it for sleep and if he isn't well or is going somewhere new.
I find it better than using a thumb coz I know people that sucked their thumbs as kids and as adults still do and it's not a nice habit and you can't throw a thumb away.

Quote:

my son was sucking his thumb when we saw him in the ultrasound, but never had a problem with it after birth.

When in the womb babies use their mouths to feel so that could be why you saw him sucking his thumb.

imanut

Tue, Nov 23 2004, 7:38 pm

I gave my baby a pacifier for the first time when she was 1 month old. it didn't interfere with nursing. at about 6 months she started using it less on her own and now only uses it when she's tired and cranky.

Yael

Tue, Nov 23 2004, 9:01 pm

I was good about not giving the pacifier too often with my oldest, to the point that I forgot to bring it with me, when he was 6 months, when we went away for shabbos and managed ok. but around 1 year old he started loving it and really getting attached to it and also his blanket. now he's 2 and I dont see him giving it up for a long time. I try to give it only at night but he finds it during the day, and its hard to get it away from him.

Rochel Leah

Tue, Nov 23 2004, 9:33 pm

I wish my son would have taken a pacifier or something as a comforter. I bottlefed and made sure that the bottle was used for hunger not comfort..I dont want him to have bad teeth as I do. but I would have wanted him to have so sort of comfort, cuz now when he is in a really bad mood, he doesnt have something to calm down with. Even if I hold him it doesnt help.
and when I got him to sleep through iwish he had something to associate positve with like a blanket or something, cuz now even though he goes to sleep without crying as soon as I bring him to his room and start reading him a book or start saying shma he starts to cry.

ForeverYoung
Guest

Thu, Nov 25 2004, 1:46 am

Hadasa,

you can try:

cutting off the tip of the pasyfier - it broke & doesn't work anymore....
(But have a spear one handy in case of a disaster)

smearign it w/ mustard or other yaki stuff

star chart

or just don't buy a new one - eventually rubber will begin to disintegrate & unpleasant to taste (Though, it could also become a choking hasard - if breaks from the ring, HV'S)

Hope this helps you

zuncompany

Thu, Nov 25 2004, 2:45 am

We are going cold turkey Pesach. We will be up all night sader nights anyway, so I figure why not. Instead of buying new ones for Pesach we will throw the old ones away and whoops... no new ones. We are doing this for both boys. We went cold turkey with Zu at his first bday and it went so smoothly. Than Tev was born and Zu kept stealing Tev's... so I got Zu some of his own.

Sara

Chanie

Thu, Nov 25 2004, 1:40 pm

ForeverYoung wrote:

smearign it w/ mustard or other yaki stuff

that would never work here. My son loves mustard and other grown up tasting foods. he even puts crushed red pepper on his pizza.

sarahd

Thu, Nov 25 2004, 6:46 pm

Chanie wrote:

Pacifiers however dont have the effect on the teeth like sucking the thumb, most pacifiers are orthopedic.

You probably mean orthodontic Very Happy

unless your son wears his pacifier on his feet... Smile

ForeverYoung
Guest

Sun, Nov 28 2004, 6:07 pm

Chanie, there must be something he dislikes -
aloe plant juice is disguasting -
my parets used to smear all the pens in the house w/ cut aloe leaves to stop me from chewing them up!! Exploding anger

I tryed to wash the pens, but ias 2 against 1 & I gave up Wink

hadasa

Sun, Dec 05 2004, 2:06 pm

Forever Young - thanks for the advice. Acually, while I was sitting around wondering when and how to wean him, he went and did it himself!! He just decided one day "I'm a big boy now, I'm going to sleep without a pacifier, and that was it!" B"H !!!

I wish all parents such easy weaning! (Maybe it has to do with the fact, as I mentioned in my previous post, that he was using it only in bed from about one year old, maybe that made it easier.)