My 3mo keeps reaching for their hand to self-soothe. We haven’t offered a pacifier yet — torn between letting it be vs introducing one. Both seem like habits that might be hard to break later. What worked for you? Any regrets or tips on weaning later?

Hand is better imo than pacifier because it can’t be dropped or lost. My kids both sucked on fingers and stopped on their own a little after a year.

Working through breaking thumb sucking right now at 2.5 years. Picked a weekend to start and had an awful 2 days/nights but seems to be working. Will take this over the alternative at 2-3 months when they couldn’t self soothe and we couldn’t get any sleep or break.

We introduced a pacifier. Son liked it for sleeping but never thought about it otherwise, so we only use it for sleeping at home (not at daycare).

At 1.5 it is really nice that he can replace his pacifier in the night and go back to sleep. I like that he can comfort himself with the paci and the lovey in the night. So no regrets at this time.

There is no right or wrong solution, just what you want to do. You don’t have to introduce a pacifier. It also depends on the kid, some kids will want one at all times and others are indifferent.

My son took a pacifier. We spent so much money on it. He'd sometimes have 5 at once, holding 4 and alternating, i have seen him with 2 in his mouth before. He is a brilliant little boy now., loves his numbers. Daycare helped with getting rid of it before 3. Again, he is a brilliant little boy with high emotional intelligence.
Daughter, not at all interested in pacifiers. She'd use toothbrush a little bit. I think she prefers to chew now that she is 1. Younger, she used some of the chew toys.
I heard you can throw pacifiers away, but not the hand, obviously.
I would give him pacifiers again if I had to do it all over.

What convinced me to use pacifier is that it can help against SIDS. My baby preferred sucking on his bottle to soothe himself.

If you consider the pacifier - I can tell you the habit can be broken quite quickly when it’s time. Just snip the transparent park slightly so it doesn’t function the same and they will be over it and since momma didn’t do it all is well 😂

My elder daughter didn't care about pacifiers at all. My younger daughter loved her binky though.
When she was 3, we started weaning her off the pacifier. It took a while, but she noticed that other kids didn't have pacifiers and decided that she was a big kid who didn't needed it anymore.

My children are both thumb suckers….based on observations from other kids…thumb sucking is a harder habit to break. The 2nd born would never take a pacifier though…I’m not sure the parent really gets to pick. I may be a bad example though since I ended up with two thumb suckers. It just seems like….it they are going to do it…you can’t stop it.

I would let them have their hand and just moisturize it and put it in a glove otherwise their hand gets chapped. They can suck on the glove.

Daughter took to pacifiers, son did not. I have a strong preference for pacifiers - super easy habit (for us) to break, but I won’t be able to take away my son’s hand. Also, the pacifier did more to soothe than the hand does, so while the hand is his go to, I still have to provide comfort every time, vs the pacifier my daughter could eventually find and replace herself and be entirely soothed by it

I gave both of mine wubanubs and pacifiers from day one and neither really cared for them after 4 months. My daughter does still chew on the feet of the wubanubs at night though 🙈

My kiddo was a thumb sucker. It really wasnt hard to break her from the habit when she was 3ish. We bought bitter nail polish and after about 2 applications, she stopped. Took a week total to break the habit.

We introduced pacifiers at 4 weeks old and he self weaned around 6 months old. I was terrified of a thumb sucking habit as you can’t take the hand away.

Are they breast fed?

Pacifiers are a lot easier of a habit to break than thumbs. If they're breast fed it gets a little tougher to wean them off, but we did weaning from pacifier and from the breast at the same time.

We did pacifier. He really only used it sleeping up until 2.5. But NEEDED it for sleeping- naps and bedtime. The dentists will tell you to try to drop paci before age 3. I decided to try the paci fairy route- At that time he was old enough to comprehend a “paci fairy” and he put all his pacis in a box and gave them to the fairy who gave him a big bluey truck as a gift in return. He went that night and all naps moving forward with no paci. Highly rec the fairy trick once you ween! I know others have had trouble but their kids were younger so I think it just all depends what you’re okay with vs not. My son was a great sleeper and if that meant he used a paci, I didn’t care lol. He’s still a great sleeper now (so far!!)

I would just for the the pacifiers but only use them for sleep. It’s so soothing for them at this age. Get the flat shaped ones (Nuk, MAM) as they stay in the mouth better than the round ones. Break the habit between the 12-18 month mark before they start developing an attachment to it. I cold turkeyed pacis around the 15 month mark when my son developed a cold and he was surprisingly great with the transition.

How do you reach for your own hand

My daughter used a pacifier consistently for sleeping from birth to 4-6 months and then dropped it. She’s 14 months and likes to throw it like a ball but otherwise is not interested at all. A pacifier made sleeping a breeze for us and there was no issues dropping it. Can’t imagine not using it.

Neither of my kids had pacifiers. And fortunately neither went for fingers or thumb. We always used sleep sacks and by the time they were out of sleep sacks they had already figured out how to self soothe.