Hello everyone
This is Sunny.
Today I'm going to share with you
“What if my baby is a thumb sucker.
All you need to know about baby fingers sucking.”
Today let's talk about why babies suck their fingers
What are the 4 phases of finger sucking
At what age do babies start sucking fingers
When does a baby need to stop sucking
What might happen if your baby has a prolong sucking habit
Should you use a pacifier to replace fingers?
At what point should parents intervene?
How to help your baby drop this habit
When does a baby start to suck on fingers?
It depends on "when" your baby discover the fact that they have fingers.
Some babies find their fingers relatively early
that they have fingers that they can suck on
For these babies,
ultrasound pictures have confirmed that
they are little thumb suckers.
They will continue sucking after being born.
Most babies, at around 2-3 months,
will discover they have fingers that can on sucked on.
It is 100% normal for babies to suck on their fingers.
And for most babies, between age 2-4,
they will stop sucking fingers on their own.
So, if your baby is sucking on his fingers now
Worry free.
It is normal.
For babies, sucking fingers serve 2 main purposes.
One is to provide soothing.
The other one is to provide stimulation.
When a baby is in a bad mood,
sucking fingers can calm him down.
Babies also suck on fingers when they feel bored.
This can bring on extra stimulation
and self-entertainment.
When babies are young
and not mobile,
Sucking on fingers is the one thing that he can control.
Once baby is older and becomes mobile,
and is more mature in development,
babies will have various way
to self-sooth or self-entertain.
Sucking on fingers become less fun
and no need to do it anymore.
I think we can categories baby sucking fingers into 4 phases.
Essential phase,
transitional phase,
habit phase,
and bad habit phase.
Babies from 0-6 months, sucking finger is essential.
6-12 months old, sucking fingers is transitional.
1-3 years old, sucking becomes a habit.
Over 4 years old, sucking has turned into bad habit.
Before I talk about what happens in each phase and what actions parents can take,
I'd like to talk about
problems that may occurs if babies sucking fingers for a prolonged period.
It’s no difference than taking a pacifier really.
Babies start to grow their permanent teeth soon after they turn 4 yrs old,
continuing sucking on fingers or a pacifier
may lead to dental malocclusion issues.
In addition,
deformation of fingers,
Paronychia,
or diseases cause by the virous
or bacteria enter from their mouth when sucking on fingers.
There may also be social or language delay issues.
Some parents might question
“how about just give the baby a pacifier
to avoid him sucking on fingers?”
“It's probably easier to drop in the future, too.”
Every family
and every baby is unique,
so,
I will talk about every phase
and it's up to you to decide
what is best for your baby.
At the end of the video,
I'll also share my thoughts about it, too.
Let's talk about the first phase,
when baby is 0-6 months, sucking fingers is essential.
Sucking is one of human's primitive reflex.
When a baby first born,
the neural development is immature,
reflexes are normal physiological behaviors produced by the central nervous system
Newborns also have other reflexes,
such as rooting reflex,
Moro reflex,
grasp reflex.
As the baby's frontal lobe matures,
these reflexes are suppressed,
and eventually disappear.
Ferrante at el. found in a study which was done in Italy that
babies sucking fingers are to
stimulate the receptor which connects nose and palate,
called the Nasopalatal Receptors.
By stimulating this receptor can bring balance of muscle,
release physical and psychological tension
to calm and self sooth.
Therefore, thumb sucking seems to have correlation
with maturity of emotions.
Babies are born with the need to suckle,
whether it's mom's nipples,
a pacifier or fingers.
Additionally,
to have the ability to put his fingers in his mouth,
is one of a milestone of finger differentiation function
and eye-hand coordination.
One of a milestones for a 4 months old baby
is to be able to put fingers in his mouth.
In this particular phase, how babies explore the world
is through putting things in his mouth.
First the baby will suck/chew the item in his mouth,
then try to knock it on the hard surface using his hands,
then throw it.
When babies first discover their hands,
they don't know they own those things.
They have no ideas what hands can be used for.
At the very first encounter,
the baby happens to lick the hands unintentionally,
often they can't aim every well,
gradually, as they eye-hand coordination develops,
he progresses,
from try suckling the whole fist,
to a few fingers,
ultimately only sucking on one finger.
This is how babies learn to use their hands.
Parents do not need to intervene,
nor stopping babies from do it.
0-6 months, simply let your baby does his own business.
Ok, then is the second phase.
Babies sucking on fingers at 6-12 months old is the transitional phase.
During this phase, babies are familiar with their hands
and how they work.
So your baby will grasp anything that’s with his parameter
and explore them by putting them in his mouth.
Thus, this is a good time
to provide items with different textures
for your baby to explore.
Meanwhile, your baby's teeth are growing,
he has teething needs.
And he is also starting to try solid food,
along with development of baby's fine motor skills
your baby is good at controlling his arms,
hands,
and fingers,
your baby enjoys to be able to work/play with
different things with his hands and mouth,
the need of sucking fingers will gradually decrease.
These videos were taken when my kids were young.
We took these videos for family use,
and were not intended to use for teaching.
However, when I look back,
almost all videos taken in this period
my kids have something in their mouth.
It is a normal process.
Not only sucking fingers,
babies in this phase also try sucking their feet.
One day your baby will find his feet by accident,
he does not know he what they are,
but he's like,
yay, I found something new,
so he'll grab them and give it a taste.
A little taste of hands,
a little taste of feet,
trying to compare the differences between these two,
and gain the ownership of feet.
Then your baby will learn how to use his feet,
such as standing,
walking,
and kicking.
Now, the third phase,
1-3 years old, sucking fingers is no longer neccessary.
Sucking fingers becomes a habit.
Ideally,
your baby now realizes that
there are way more fun stuffs in this world,
ways more things that he can play with,
way more things to eat,
so he won't have time to suck fingers.
If your baby still sucking fingers during this phase,
basically, you don't need to intervene,
but your do need to pay closer attention.
You want to observe for 4 things,
one, under what situation does your baby suck fingers.
Two, how long does he suck each time.
Three, how strong is his sucking strength.
Four, how many times does he suckle in a day.
Relatively speaking, number of times is not the main concern,
what matters is how strong the suction is
and the duration of sucking.
Suckles 10 times per day,
gently, for 3 minutes each time,
comparing to 5 times per day
but strong suctions for 20 minutes each time,
the impact is very different.
During this phase,
we don't stop baby from sucking fingers,
but we redirect,
redirect baby from his sucking behavior.
We usually categories baby sucking fingers
into 6 categories:
of course, there are other reasons,
but these 6 are the most seen.
First is boredom.
Then is tiredness.
Followed by huger,
distress,
association with sleep,
and other associations,
e.g. listening to stories
or watching TV.
So, 所以
as soon as you notice your baby starts sucking,
at the moment,
you calmly,
without saying anything, simply redirect your baby to do an alternative behavior.
ultimately the habit of sucking fingers will break.
For example, when you find your baby puts his fingers in his mouth
because he is bored
As soon as you see baby's fingers in the mouth,
you immediately say
"Baby, let's play this!"
Find an object or an activity for your baby to play with.
Let's say you hand him a toy.
You hand something to him that he's interested in,
in order to get the item from you,
he'll have to take his fingers out from his mouth.
Right?
If you find your baby sucking on fingers when he is tired,
then you do not want to overtired your baby.
You'll want to prepare him for nap.
If your baby sucking on his fingers when hungry,
then you give him food to eat.
Finger food is a good choice
and let baby feeds himself.
string cheese,
fruits pieces,
bread are all good choices.
If your baby sucking on fingers when feeling distressed,
one hug from you provides more sense of secure then sucking fingers.
Give your baby a hug.
When hugging, bring his fingers out from his mouth at the same time,
or you open your arms and await him to give you a hug.
That way, he will need to take his hand out from his mouth.
encouragement,
companionship,
helping your baby dealing with the stress.
If finger sucking is associated with sleeping,
for example, if your baby sucks on fingers whenever
he holds the sleeping blanket or the teddy bear,
if that's the case,
you will want to make sure that item stays in bed only.
And then tell your baby that
this bear or blanket
only likes to stay in bed,
and we only hold it when sleeping.
That way you can prevent
baby holds the item that associated with sleeping and sucking.
If your baby associates sucking with other things
such as
when listening to stories,
Whenever you reading a story,
your baby will suck on fingers while listening,
then, when you are reading a story,
you have him point to the pictures
and ask him "where is the apple?"
"Can you find certain item in the picture?"
or maybe ask him to turn the page for you.
When his hands are occupied,
he doesn't have time to suckle.
Every time when you see baby sucking fingers,
you subtlety take his hand out and hold on to his hand,
or you give him something to hold on to,
to decrease the duration of sucking time.
For babies who suck on fingers to self soothe before sleep,
you don't need to intervene yet.
We keep track on how many times baby suck fingers per day,
how strong the suction is,
and how long is each episode.
The lesser the episodes,
lesser in strength,
lesser duration,
lesser the problem there will be.
If baby only suckles on fingers before sleep,
it won't really affect baby's oral and fingers development too much.
No need to intervene.
Finally,
Babies enter 3-5 years old, the 4th phase.
Most kids around 4 years old
will stop sucking fingers on his own.
Because they development more self-management skills
and no need to sooth or entertained
by sucking on fingers anymore.
Sucking on fingers is only a long-time habit.
Also, at this age,
sucking fingers have more negative impact than positive ones,
so, parents need to start
having conversation with your child
on how to drop this habit.
When a behavior turns into a habit
or even an addition,
quitting requires hard work.
And one of the most important things is
that one needs have strong desire to want to quit,
then it becomes possible to quit.
Only when oneself is determined,
the methods work.
Explain clearly to your child
what problems might rise if he keeps sucking fingers.
Dental,
oral,
face or fingers deformation...etc.
This issue
is not too complex for kids at this age to comprehend.
They are old enough to understand the consequences.
Choose a book that you think is appropriate and read to your child
and start the conversation
to talk about why sucking fingers?
what are the benefits of doing so?
what are the disadvantages of doing so?
What makes him want to suck fingers?
What are possible ways to drop sucking fingers?
Listen to what your child has to say,
brainstorm together,
come up with different ways to try.
Most importantly,
do not tease your child
and no scolding.
Just think about for a second,
there are times when you hear others judging you
how hurtful that is.
especially you child care about your opinions the most.
Of course, there may be times that other kids
may make fun of him,
they may say
"Oh, you're still a tiny baby
sucking on your own fingers" and so on.
Situations like this is the perfect time for discussion.
Yes, of course,
we don’t want to make fun of your child with others kids,
but we want to take this chance and talk to our child,
"why would others make such a comment?"
"Do you think what they say is true?"
"Even if it's true,"
"is it appropriate to say thing in such a way?"
Then you switch to his perspective and ask,
"What do you think?"
"Do you think maybe this habit needs to be changed?"
When your child decides on his own
that he wants to drop the habit of sucking fingers,
it becomes an easier task.
There are many ways to drop fingers sucking habit.
There are many parents who have lots of experience to share.
You can try all and see which works for you.
We can simply categorize them into 3 categories:
One is positive reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement.
When your child didn’t suck on fingers, you praise the act.
Reward his good behavior.
You can set up a rewarding system,
collecting stickers,
collecting cards,
collecting stamps for gifts, so on.
Another strategy is punishment.
Scolding, stand against the wall,
putting spicy taste on fingers,
or bitter taste, etc.
They are all punishments.
Positive reinforcement requires longer time to see result
where punishment can see results right away.
However, in a long run,
punishment many only work if a parent is onsite.
Once the parent is offsite, however his fingers won't disappear,
the child may still continue the sucking behavior
and the behavior may worsen due to the intense restriction.
There is another way to drop sucking,
wearing the corrective gloves.
When your child sucks on his fingers unconsciously,
he then recognizes that he is sucking,
and stops the behavior at his will.
I will link the products in the description section below,
feel free to check out the links if you’d like.
Finally,
do I prefer using pacifier to replace sucking on fingers?
Personally I don't like doing so.
Because to me,
in order to drop a habit,
using another habit to replace it
is not solving the problem.
Instead, it is creating another problem.
If majority of sucking
is simply putting fingers in mouth,
this won’t causes a lot of impact on oral development.
But if there is a lot of active sucking,
and for a prolonged period of time,
then it will create more serious problem in dental,
oral, and facial deformation.
Most kids stop sucking fingers on their own
before they turn 4 years old.
Therefore, we have enough time to take proper actions.
If your child's sucking habit is severe
and he/she is over 4 years old,
even if your child's development seems normal,
My suggestion to you is
consult a pediatrician,
pediatric dentist,
speech therapist and pediatric psychiatrist
to find a suitable way,
using positive strategies to help your child drop the habit of sucking fingers.
OK. This is what I have for you
"What if my baby is a thumb sucker?
All you need to know about baby fingers sucking "
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Bye.