More thoughts on thumbsucking:

Of course all babies are different, and some develop the habit of sucking
their thumbs in utero, and moms don't think anything of it, so it continues.
Evidence based on cross-cultural research and analysis of human breast milk
content suggests that human babies are designed to nurse *several times an
hour* around the clock.  One would expect that their has been selection for
a strong instinct to suck in this pattern, and nursing *on demand* can be
altered significantly by the mother, who of course has other things to do.
I'm not suggesting that all babies must be held continuously by the mother
with continuous access to the breast -- just that that is what they have
evolved to expect, and their sucking instincts have evolved accordingly.
When you look at mothers who say they are nursing *on demand* but the baby
only *demands* every 3-4 hours, you usually find subtle and not-so-subtle
messages from the mother that nursing more often is not allowed.  Thus, baby
may turn to his thumb or fingers, and since mom thinks "baby can't be hungry
again" she lets him pacify himself.

My own research suggests that the absolute minimum time human children have
evolved to expect breastfeeding to continue is 2.5 years, with a range of
2.5 to 7 years.  Thus, one would expect that for many of them, their sucking
instincts will remain strong throughout this period, and thus one would
expect a child nursed for 2 years to be very likely to still have the
instinctive urge to suck til 6, 7, 8 years or even longer.  I strongly
encourage parents of thumb-suckers to let their children suck their thumbs
(fingers, pacifiers) as long as they need to.

I was responding to a Swiss doctors claim that all children should be
*encouraged* to suck their thumbs to make them more independent of their
mothers as early as possible.  He was saying that self-comforting is better
than comforting at the breast.  I disagree.  That's all.

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Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.                         email: [log in to unmask]
Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX  77843-4352