I have tended to encourage mothers whose babies wanted to suck other than at
the breast to let the baby suck on the mother's finger. My feeling is that
there are a couple of benefits to this over thumbsucking or pacifiers: the
baby also gets the closeness of being held in a parents' arms, not just
sucking while alone; and the parent is unlikely to use this as a way of
spacing out feedings.

When my daughter was a baby, I was also nursing her older brother and had
TONS of milk and rapid let-down. She would nurse until full, then still want
something to suck on, so I would keep her in my arms (or in a sling or
carrier) and let her suck on my finger.

What do the rest of you think of this approach?

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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