I have been following the thumbs avidly since it concerns a point in a pet research idea of mine, but I missed the beginning of the discussion. At any rate, I would like to add my usual 2 cents. I heartily second Denise. The range of "normal" behavior is quide wide. Many of us are *born* needing more than others of whatever: need for attention, contact, food, sucking. As I said before (but can't remember in what context), we do the best we can as mothers, not better than we can. Diane W.'s reply was also great, especially about our Stone Age sisters. IMO, I strongly suspect that thumbsucking breastfed babies/children are high-needs people, and their moms should take off the hair shirts - their kids' "unmet needs" can probably never be met since they are too high to be met by breastfeeding, comfort nursing, family bed, or anything and everything within the mother's capabilities. There is nothing "wrong" with these kids and nothing "wrong" with the mothers. Ooof! Why do we buy into the blame game? BTW, this really messes up my research hypothesis. I had no idea that there were longterm breastfed babies who sucked their thumbs. Back to the drawing board.....Judy Knopf in Beer Sheva, Israel, two cents shorter.