Sucking on Paci or Sucking on Hands?

LIAngel · June 2009

I noticed that DS will start sucking on his hands in the middle of the night. So I rush into his room and give him the paci instead. This is so he doesn't wake himself up and start crying for the paci. BUT I wonder if he prefers his hands. Do you think I should experiment tonight and not give him the paci and see if he just continues to suck on his hands. Of course if he wanted his hands in the first place, he'd spit the paci out and just suck on them. Hmmmm what would you do?

DavezWife · June 2009

if he does not seem to do it all the time (awake, etc.) I would let it be.

If he seems to like them 24/7, I would maybe toy with the idea of a paci, but I have the idea that taking away a paci is easier than taking away a thumb.

Says the woman with a 15 month old addicted to her paci. lol.

mrsolsenk12 · June 2009

My DS does this as well. We are trying to avoid him becoming a thumb sucker so when he does suck on his hands, we give him a paci.

choco_lab · June 2009

I give DS the paci .. but he DS has gotten to the point that he just started taking the paci out of his mouth by himself so he can stuff his fingers/hand into his mouth! Before he was just spitting the paci out. I'm just letting him suck on his hands. I know it's going to be a hard habit to break but I sucked my thumb and turned out OK.

jsusann · June 2009

My dd can stuff her whole fist in her mouth. She gave herself a damn hickey on her forearm a few weeks ago...so in a nutshell, I know what you mean...ha. I give her the pacifier to avoid more hickeys..; ). I haven't seen her with just her thumb yet. Lilly had the pacifier until she was about 16 months old. I just took them all away one day and she was fine. I would much rather have Finley suck a binky than her thumb.

laura&dan05 · June 2009

dd sucks on her hands every opportunity she gets. She is working on getting her thumb in her mouth. I'm constantly pulling her hands out and giving her the paci. My thinking is that at least I can take the paci away at some point. Thumb sucking (finger sucking) seems like a much more difficult habit to try and break!

JillRock96 · June 2009

Ditto pp. ?I introduced the paci because it is something that we can can control and can wean her off of later. ?We pretty easily have gotten Ava down to using the paci only at naptime and bedtime (and very rarely, in the car). ?I don't know firsthand, but I've been told that thumb sucking is a much harder habit to break.

charmcitygirl · June 2009

Like all of the pps, I would like Jake to be a paci guy so that its easier to control down the line. So we have been taking is hands out of his mouth to give him the paci. Also I don't think that his hands are nearly as calming to him as the paci. I think they're a fun toy right now and they get him all fired up rather than calming him down.