>Peaches never went through this stage. I did give her pacifier for a time when she was still a newborn but I didn’t have a hard time breaking the habit. At 8 months, we were not using the pacifier anymore. For some time, I was watching out for her to start thumb sucking but she didn’t and honestly, I forgot about it until today when I read about it at Babycenter.

Why do children thumb suck? 
Babies thumb suck for many reasons:

1. They are teething and sucking something is comforting
2. They feel bad or sense something bad that sucking thumb eases the bad feeling
3. They are tired, bored, sleepy, sick, etc
4. Most of the time, thumb sucking lull them to sleep

When to worry? 
Parents’ first initial thought about thumb sucking is that it deforms the child’s teeth. But as per the American Dental Association, thumb sucking is harmless until the age of 4. But if the child is too aggressive, you might want to break the habit because it will really affect the growth of the teeth.

How to break the habit?
One thing to keep in mind is never push or punish the child. Make him understand why you don’t want him to thumb suck. Maybe show a picture of deformed teeth and tell him it’ll happen to him if he won’t stop with his habit. Don’t nag, let him be. In time he will learn to forget about it and move on.
If you can identify the situations were your child tends to thumb suck, you can substitute his thumb to something either a toy or a food.

I hope this helps 🙂