Fingers in the mouth..

Dymphna

Loyalty, Friendship, Love
Hi, I am a daycare provider and just wondering, how many people think its OK for toddlers, babies to suck on their fingers. I have more kids in my daycare now who suck on their fingers like a "binkie".
Some even have worn sores on them. I have a couple who seem to stay sick a lot and my belief is that these fingers are in their noses, on the other children, on toys touched by other children and also end up places that we can only imagine.
I had pacifiers for my kids (although I hated it) but its a natural thing for them to want to suck and these can be put into the washer and sterilized. In the store tonight I saw three more children doing this. I've even got an older girl who has not outgrown this. To me when they are broke of the pacifier then thats it. How do you break the habit of the fingers when they are always there.
Thanks so much.
Is it ok? :shrug: Most of them do it at some point. Do they get sick a lot?..they all get sick a lot. How many times have you had to take a bottle/sippy cup/binkie/toy away from one child because another child just had it in his mouth. The best you can do is do what you can to keep things clean and minimize obvious germ sharing. I find that thumb suckers and binkie suckers get ill in equal amounts. If you see them putting fingers in their noses, they are most likely gonna spread their germs on the toys that other children play with, rather than sticking other germs up their nose.

As for breaking them of thumbsucking, it does need to stop eventually because they can ruin their teeth. However, the bigger deal you make of it, the more likely they will keep doing it. My son sucked his thumb. I showed him pictures of my buck-toothed brother and told him that if he didn't stop by the time he started getting his permanent teeth, he'd look like that. He stopped sucking his thumb the day he lost his first tooth.

They have to have a reason to stop, you can't do it for them. If you get all over their case about it, they will get stressed out and when they get stressed out, they suck their thumbs.
 

robbie

New Member
Goodness, I only asked other peoples opinion on this. I have never said anything to the parents or to the children. How they raise them is their business but I just wondered if this is more common now days. I clean VERY thorough and so often my hands are raw. I do have parents of these children complaining often that they don't understand why their children are so sick often. I thought this may contribute to it.
WHY in the #$%#$% does anyone post to this forum if some @@#@$@# are going to respond this way to a simple question. I have been on this forum for a while and have never had such a nasty response. Thanks to those who were helpful, the rest :lalala:
 
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