We have recently started giving my 5mo. old daughter food. Rice cereal, breast milk, and bananas are her diet for now, but she has an annoying habit, if you will. After every bite, she sucks her thumb. I have to pry it out of her mouth and she resists me everytime. I hold her hand while I give her another bite (which she takes happily) and the tumb goes right back in. She does suck her thumb at bed time and when she is upset, I just don't understand the need to eat and suck at the same time! I just don't have enough hands to feed her and keep her thumb away from her mouth. She used to do this with nursing as well.
Does anyone have a thumb sucker (or otherwise) that did this?
Do you have any tricks to get her to stop? (We have tried toys and stuff to occupy her hands--didn't work)
It's not really that big of a deal, it's just annoying.
Well, this behabvior stopped after she became more comfortable with solids. She still likes to do it sometimes, but it is much better. I have started using her old recieving blankets as bibs, and when she can't see her hands and feet she doesn't try to put them in her mouth! Yaya! And it keeps the high chair clean!
Thank you thank you!
For our son it stopped when he could effectively use his hands to eat. It's funny, though. He's now 20 months old and still drools (due to health issues). When we tell him to swallow, he sticks his finger in his mouth and sucks first. He is still a champ thumb sucker, but only in bed or with his bear. We just don't let bear out of bed very often.
This is actually really common. The only way she has ever known how to eat up to this point is to suck. Maybe she isn't ready for solids yet. Your Doc can give you advice on that. When my daughter was a little older I used to put a small bandaid on her thumb and later fingernail polish on just her thumb nail. That way the thumb didn't feel the same in her mouth. She would sometimes get mad about this but often would just take her thumb out and be done with it.
I don't have a thumb sucker, but 2 of my kids did this in the beginning when they were first starting on solids, I think it helps them get it down, and they stopped before they were a year old, I think it was as soon as they were picking up the food and eating it themselves, it's been a while so I am not sure of exact times. I would do the samething you do, just pull there hand out and pop the food in, and when we were done I gave the had a good wash down, sometimes I think more got on their hand then in their tummy. I wouldn't worry about it untill about a year old. Good luck!
I would not put the food in if she is sucking her thumb, just sit and wait until she opens to take a bite and hold down her hands. That sounds cruel but I am with you, that is not a good habit to do at all. As she gets older if you don't break this habit it could cause issues with her chewing her food well so I would try and distract her, give her a spoon to hold with the other hand or whatever you have to do, but break the habit now.
