When my third child came along, we watched her carefully to see if she has thumb sucking problem also. I made sure she slept with meand I also feed on demand instead of scheduling her feed. I literally let my breast be her pacifier, in order to avoid her from sucking her thumb. A lot of people suggested that I should give her the pacifier instead of tiring myself by letting her feed as often and as much as she wants. But I just couldn’t get myself to do it.
However, when I had to go back to work, and the care takers noticed that she put her thumb into her mouth occasionally, they decided it’s better to let her use the pacifier, otherwise we might have the same thumb-sucking problem as we had with the second one. I didn’t object as I was not the one giving the pacifier, and I made it a point that she doesn’t use it when my husband and I are around.
So it worked out well, the care givers would give her the pacifier to make her sleep, etc, but when we are at home, she doesn’t see the pacifier. She was ok with it also, she didn’t ask for the pacifier when we were around. So she was not really addicted to it, the pacifier was just the ‘mommy replacement’.
