How do you prevent a thumb sucker from starting?

My DS sucked his thumb in the womb ... for weeks since he was born he would attempt to find his thumb ... this week he finally found how to pop it in his mouth and it has not left since ... how do I stop this kid from becoming a thumb sucker?? ... we pull his hand out, we replace with the pacifier ... nothing deters him from getting that thumb in there!

Re: How do you prevent a thumb sucker from starting?

My DD was a thumbsucker in the womb too. She is 17 months old now and she really only ***** it when she's either hungry or tired and going to bed.

She is conscious of it too because we'll look at her and tell her no and she'll take it right out.

I wish I would have been more diligent in putting mitts on her when she was an infant.

Re: How do you prevent a thumb sucker from starting?

Nothing is helping on our end. We only had a month's success with "Princesses don't suck their thumbs" & she can't wear nailpolish if she ***** her thumb.

I think it's going to take her classmates berating her for her to stop.

Although when she got out of dance class last week, she said "I didn't suck my thumb at all." When I asked her why, she said "Because none of the other girls were & I had to copy what they were doing for dancing".