Mummy's entry - From fists to fingers to thumb

Before Rye Li was born, I was already praying that she doesn’t suck her thumb. I know for sure I will not give the pacifier to her after reading some negative impacts on them.

In the earlier months of Rye Li’s life, I was glad that there were no indications of her wanting to suck her thumb but now looking back, I should have known better that there were telltale signs.

While bathing, there were many occasions where she will be sucking on either of her fists. And when she was wearing her mittens she will be having the mittens in her mouth most of the time.

So when we stop wearing the mittens on her (around midway of her 4th month), she has gotten this habit of having either fists in the mouth. Soon after that, it was either 2 or 3 fingers at a time. And by this time, I didn’t really care much coz she wasn’t sucking her thumb.

Then several weeks after her Penang trip, she managed to find her left thumb and it has been history after that. She has yet to find her right thumb and I don’t think she will coz she looks really contented with her left thumb. Many times when I’ve observed her sleeping, I noticed how she will find her left thumb to suck on and then when she’s in a deep sleep, she will let go of it. When she realizes her left thumb is out, she will put in back into her mouth again.

And since it’s only her left thumb, her head will mostly be on her left side. So when she unconsciously turns to the right and realizes her left thumb is out, she will automatically turn back to the left to get her thumb back into her mouth. I realized from her body language that she’s tired of sleeping on her left side but she has no choice if she wants her left thumb. I do so very much want to help her find her right thumb and yet I don’t want to encourage another thumb.

She does look adorable sucking her thumb away but I’m worried of its long term effects. My elder sister who sucked her thumb all the way till she was about 10 or so still have that thumb looking funny till today. And then I hear from other Moms that their kids suck so long on them that it can bleed or have hard bumps on them. I really don’t know whether I should introduce the pacifier to her or not. Even if I wanted to, her nursery does not encourage it. Maybe I’ll just try it at home to see her reaction but I doubt it will work coz even when I feed her from the bottle or nurse her at times, I notice she will get her left thumb into her mouth too.

Oh well, on the brighter side, I’ve not come across anyone who has sucked their thumb before to become abnormal later on in their lives. So I guess thumb sucking will not do her any harm.