Thumbsucking, is it good or bad?

Thumb sucking can be a very difficult problem to solve and can cause lots of problems including teeth growing in crooked. I might ask if you give him a pacifier? I know a lot of people are against them and when they get to a certain age (with all 4 of mine it was one year old) the pacifier can be thrown in the trash - you can't do that with a thumb :( If your not giving him one now you may try that - he may not accept it but if he does much better for you both. I would be very concerned that he prefers the thumb over food though and may be something you want to ask your pediatrition about - maybe he doesn't like his food or it bothers his stomach so prefers the thumb.

It's probably very soothing for your baby to suck his thumb. I wouldn't worry about it. My experience has been babies that suck their thumbs are more content. We had one daughter who did this and she was always happy. It did, however, cause her permanent teeth to be buck, She had a tremendous overbite. Braces did the job and her teeth today are gorgeous. She's now 31 and is still content and happy. My advice: I'd let him suck his thumb.

I think the thumbsucking thig is completely natural and you should ot worry about it at all. As the time pass, the habbit of thumbsucking will get away. And thumbsucking is not the reason for the light weight of your baby. I will suggest you something, if you are that much worried about the thumsucking of ur kid. Buy a honey filled artificial nipple, which is easily available in the market and just use it to keep ur baby busy in sucking the nipple. As the time pass, the habbit of thumbsucking will go away.

Thumbsucking may be normal up to 4 years old. Experts says that babies thumbsuck because they are bored or stressed. One way is to divert their attention to other things or talk to him when he is older and let him understand the side effects of thumbsucking after 5 years old. Even at the age of 4 to 6 months you may prevent babies from thumbsucking by holding his hand and divert his attention and keeping him from getting bored or stressed by playing and talking to him. That's how I did it with my kid. The difficult to control is when he thumbsucks in order to sleep.

I wouldn't worry about this to much at this point. He's only 4 months...it's when he's four and still doing it that you might wanna try something to stop him. it will make his teeth buck out. I was a thumb sucker and my mother never tried to stop me until she met my step dad. They let it go way to long though. i was ten before i quit, even though i only did it at night when i went to bed. I had to have braces though and that gets expensive. I would try to stop him by the time he's one, no later than two. It is natural for them to want to suck on things, but sometimes it passes...other times, you have to help them see that it's not a good thing to do. hope this helped or made you feel a little better. God bless

Hi,there! I think that's babies' habit. It's like it happens naturally.When I was young,I also used to do that and liked that pretty much.I did stop doing that until I was 5 or 6 years old.I notice that many kids have this problem.I think parents should make the kids form the habit not to suck their thumbs.If you always tell them not to do that,they'll correct it one day.But if at the beginning,you don't pay attention to it,then it would be difficult later to talk him/her to give it up.Thanks for the discussion and best regards for you and your baby^_^

well it can be both good and bad. good, in that it can help your baby relax and calm him/her down. bad, he/she could develop a bad habit which they will not loose until they are grown up. i know of a friend of mine who used to suck his thumb since when he was 2 years old and he is still doing it now he is 13 years old. his thumb is sooo ugly! from all that sucking, it is really disgusting. you should try to make your child end the habit.

Thumsucking is very natural for a 4 month baby.But it might spoil the natural shape of the teeth and make the baby look ugly even though the teeth are clean.All I can say is let the baby suck the finger,but when the baby is asleep take the finger out of the baby's mouth and you are done.But never force the baby because it might make the baby more aggressive towards thumbsucking.

I have heard both schools of thought. My kiddos never did suck their thumbs, but my hubby did with no problems later in life.

I just open for discussion topic on thumbsucking. I have 3 nieces who all thumsucked up to their high school year. In fact my daughter who is 16 years of age and about to graduate from high school is still thumbsucking. Weve done everything to stop her but to no avail. But she do that at home, while in bed and about to sleep. Based on readings those thumbsucking is a sign of insecurity. But to my mind how can a toddler be insecured. But while eating one time with my daughter she signal to me a young man about 19 years old thumbsucking in front of his family and friends in sight of many customers. We both laugh and just say amen.