Help ... My baby sucks her Thumb!

My 2 year old sucks her thumb, she does it when she is tired or sleepy. Once she is off to sleep she does not care whether her thumb is in her mouth or out.... hence I easily pull it out. She discovered thumb-sucking when she was a month old. I have not bothered much about it, maybe because my nephew used to suck his thumb till around 3.5 (he is 2 years elder to The Toddler). I knew the ped my sister consulted didn't find anything wrong in it and neither do most doctors. Till a certain age, I think it is fine. There definitely are mums who get stressed because of this habit.


Let us see why do children suck their thumb?

Yes, you guessed it right... They suck their thumb as it calms them and comforts them. Your toddler might have even practiced the habit in the womb and s/he perfected it when s/he was an infant. Kids get into this habit and suck their thumb when they are tired, bored, sick, scared, or trying to adjust to something. Most common usage is when they use their thumb to fall asleep.

What can we do as a parent?
Do not stress: 

You might feel worried about your child, but American Dental Association say children can safely continue thumb-sucking till they are 3 or 4. Also not all kind of thumb-sucking is equally bad. Experts believe the intensity of sucking the thumb and tongue's thrust might deforms teeth and makes braces important later. Kids who just keep their thumb passively in their mouth are less likely to have difficulty. If your child sucks vigorously, you might start curbing early by around 3 years.

Ignore it:If you start punishing your 1 or 2-year-old and force him to stop, it won't help... you will get a cranky toddler instead as at that age they are too young to even realize they're doing it. If you pressurize them, the habit might just intensify. As soon as they get an alternate way to sooth/calm themselves 90% kids will say bye to this habit.

If you do not want to wait for long, you can observe the situation and find out when your child sucks her/his thumb — try to give them something in their hand at that point and they will forget about thumb sucking for some time. If s/he suck their thumb because they are tired try to increase his nap time for half an hour. You will have to see when sucking happens and try to divert the kid's attention by giving an alternative.

Now the big question that many parents have: "Will thumb sucking interfere with my toddler's teeth?"
The answer is Thumb-sucking might create problems when the teeth start developing. If your kid sucks his/her thumb when their permanent teeth are on the way the teeth might get affected.

Having said that, you should know until that stage it is pretty unlikely to have any kind of serious damage (as mentioned above not all thumb sucking is equally damaging).

Do not stress at all, most children leave thumb sucking behind and you would even not know when that happened.