I suspect the mom is worried about thumbsucking distorting the baby's teeth.
Many years ago I heard a dentist say that this is not a concern when baby is
totally breastfed because they place the thumb differently.  A breastfed
baby tends to lay the thumb back against the tongue while the bottle fed
baby pushes the thumb up against the palate and forward against the upper
front teeth.  This approximates what the nipple (mom's vs. artificial) felt
like in their mouth.  The baby in question at the time was apparently one
with very high oral needs who seemed to want something in his mouth 25 hours
a day.  He nursed without problems and gained just fine.  His teeth came in
perfectly normal.  Amusingly enough, they came in earlier than typical, even
before he was taking solids.  He had learned to gum his food and when the
teeth came, he was quite frustrated for a while because they seemed to be in
the way of his eating!

 

Winnie


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