Parenting Toddlers (1-3) Support Group
This community is focused on the joys, challenges and concerns faced by parents of toddlers (1 to 3 year olds). The major areas of child development include: physical development, perception and sensory development, communication and language development, cognitive development, emotional development and social development. Join to share your stories and get advice.
My daughter is 3 soon. She has always been a finger sucker...but just resting her fingers in her mouth until someone told her to take them out. And only every three days or so. All of a sudden she has started to suck her thumb...in earnest...in secrecy. Ive busted her a few times hiding under her kiddy table sucking away. And she freaks out when told/asked to stop. Nothing has changed in her life really. She is out of a toddler bed but the thumb sucking started BEFORE the change over. I do NOT want a late thumb sucker...she hasnt even had a soother in a year and a half!
My son just started daycare and he had never used a pacifier in his life, but we always had them, just in case. So, he found one in the bottom of the toy box a couple weeks ago and started sucking on it. He's 14 months old and I was shocked, because he's never done that, but I figured he just saw other kids doing it at daycare, so he was curious about it. I let him try it out, I washed it off and set it on his little table area, so he knew that he could have it if that's what he really wanted. He probably tried it out for two or three days (just a few minutes each day) and hasn't touched it, since. I knew I was taking a risk by letting him use a pacifier at this age because he could have loved it and insisted on using it all the time and he's way too old for that; but I also knew that if I took it away, he'd only be more curious and then it WOULD be a problem.