sucker - paci or hand?

BAM_2780 · September 2010

It's funny, but even at 10 days old, I know my daughter is such a sucker! I BF and when she is awake, she wants to suck. It is a LOT of wear and tear on my nipples!
I have a paci I look longingly at, but my H is opposed to it. If he was the one BFing, I bet he'd feel differently.

Maya does suck her hands when she can find them. W/o a paci, I think she will be a finger/thumb sucker. The good thing is I'll never have to get up to put her paci in her mouth. The bad is it will be hard to break the habit.

What are your thoughts?

mchell9 · September 2010

Sounds just like my LO- she even gave herself a hickey on her arm from sucking so hard!

We give her a paci- she doesn't always take it but it def soothes her and comforts her without having to be on me.

So I say do the paci...worry about weaning later when it may not even be a problem anymore!

nicobean1 · September 2010

DS took a paci at first, but he quickly learned that it was a fake nipple, and now it just makes him MAD if we try to give him one. As soon as he discovered his hands, though, he's been a hand, fist, finger, and thumb chewer/sucker.

As the daughter of an orthodontist, I'm very concerned about him sucking his thumb into early childhood, but it's discouraged to cut their hands off ( Wink ) so we'll just have to hope he grows out of it.

mamaholic · September 2010

A was a sucker from the start. She would smack her lips and make sucking noises from the time she was done nursing until the next feeding. We finally gave in and gave her the paci and she loves it.

It's also said that going to sleep with a paci is supposed to help prevent SIDS -- although it's not known why.

"The AAP also stresses the need to avoid redundant
soft bedding and soft objects in the infant?s sleeping
environment, the hazards of adults sleeping with an infant
in the same bed, the SIDS risk reduction associated
with having infants sleep in the same room as adults and
with using pacifiers at the time of sleep, the importance
of educating secondary caregivers and neonatology practitioners
on the importance of ?back to sleep,? and strategies
to reduce the incidence of positional plagiocephaly
associated with supine positioning." -AAP (American Association of Pediatrics)

andrea z · September 2010

My sister sucked her thumb until she was 10. My parents tried everything to get her to stop. Her dental bills have been horrible because of it. We are doing the paci thanks to her.

LemonLime10 · September 2010

I would say paci. My niece is almost 3 and still sucks on her fingers. It's so hard to break the habit when it's so readily available to them. Also, I feel like the germs she gets from sucking on them is horrible! I know what you mean though, all Liv wants to do it use my boob as a paci!

ibis · September 2010

DS is a sucker too. He has never seemed too interested in sucking on his fingers or hands but we have no problem giving him a pacifier (he's still BFing). You could try telling your H that pacifiers are supposedly better for their oral development than thumbs. They're designed to not impede their teeth as they come in.

kellieok · September 2010

My DS is a sucker too and we could actually tell when we did the 3D u/s because he kept sucking his hand in there! LOL... but he prefers his hand over the paci although sometimes he will take it. I def know what you mean about your LO treating you like a human paci... it is so frustrating because right now that is the only way I can get him to go to be at night and he would STTN but he'll wake up when he feels me move. I say try the paci because if your LO likes it, it will at lease give you and your nipple a break!

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