Please, please, please, do not assume that a baby or child who sucks
fingers/thumb or uses a "lovey" transitional object is somehow to be pitied
because his/her mother ignored his/her sucking needs!!!!!
  My daughter nursed very well, and I was always available to her.  She
gained well and was (and is) very healthy.  I followed her lead, learned to
respond to her cues, and most of all held her/rocked her/nursed her whenever
and WHERE EVER.  She sucked her thumb after nursing for hours.  She loved the
softness of the blanket that I covered her with.  I  did not  interrupt her
thumbsucking/lovey routines in order to put myself into the picture.  She is
now, at three years old, a happy, contented, verbal, healthy, and secure
child-all of the things that one hopes for in a securely attached child.  She
does not mistake her thumb or her blanket for her mother.
   Respectfully,
    Lisa Jones, LLLL Wellington FL