When we are babies, none of us were asked if we wanted to “suck our thumb or use a Pacifier (I LOVE THE NAME!), wondering right now about that decision for my daughter. Many lactation consultants and pediatricians believe that there could be a “nipple” confusion if a newborn is exposed to bottles/pacifiers in the first 3 weeks, for sure it’s a nice a idea but I have not yet seen (until now) some one that has not “exposed” their babies to them. In our debate, someone told us, “you can accidentally loose the paci, but you can’t cut out the thumb”… That got us thinking, we waited 3 weeks, limiting her contact to artificial nipples and we started to have a couple of questions in our heads:
1) Having no choice, but for sure influence in the decision, I would encourage the pacifier for my baby instead of the thumb. The entire concept was commodity, easy handling, decrease risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (AKA: SIDS; could be a topic for another day) thinking that one day in the future “Mr Paci” will go on a trip an never come back…
2) Choice two: “The Organic Thumb”, you never lose it, they know where it is, but it needs some behavioral interventions (as the pacifier) to finish with it, plus having a finger on the mouth after the child has teeth starts to push certain areas creating good business for orthodontics.
And for every one… What was your feeling? Did you choose a method? Any tips? Was it hard to “take” it out?
Dr Shap's 
Having three granddaughters living with me with their mother, shear the first one had a pacifier and gave it up on her own…don’t remember her age but would guess a toddler. The younger two suck their thumbs…still…at ages 9 and 7 although I will say usually only at night or if tired. Granddaughter number two will definitely need braces to pull her upper front teeth back in place. Granddaughter number three will need braces regardless and doesn’t seem to have pushed her teeth out like number two. I would choose the pacifier over the thumb any day. I had three children. Two used the pacifier and one did not, but she didn’t suck her thumb either. Her bottle was her pacifier! They all also had their favorite blanket or toy and they helped the child self-comfort in the middle of the night and all slept well as babies by six to ten weeks.
Thanks for you comments… I agree, every body gets a plan… And thats the easy part… Following it is a different story