My suspicion about babies who do this is that they are the ones who sucked
their thumbs in utero, and are used to that feeling.

I say this because it happened with one of my children. He was born with a
sucking blister on his lip, and he popped his thumb in his mouth within
seconds of his birth. When I put him to the breast, he would pull back and
it seemed to me he was trying to re-create that feeling of the thumb in his
mouth.

All that seemed to help was being persistent. Each time he pulled back, I
un-latched him and put him on again. It didn't take long until he figured
out that nursing in the right position and getting milk was better.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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