This is an automatically translated article.
According to the doctor's recommendation, the baby should be breastfed for the first 6 months of life. From about 2-3 months of age you can see that your baby starts to regularly suck his thumb, this can be a harmless action but sometimes also brings some problems that need intervention especially when the baby sucks and refuses to suck. So what should a 3-month-old baby do, when to intervene, when the baby sucks but refuses to suck, how should it be handled?
1. Why does the baby refuse to suckle?
Stressed children: Children will also be stressed, stressed. At this time, the child's sucking will stimulate the child's brain to produce endorphins (endogenous pain relievers), a pleasant feeling of relaxation is created to help children reduce stress, it is similar to when children are eating sweets. food that children love. This also leads to the baby sucking his thumb refusing to suckle. The reason may be that the mothers are busy, making the baby no longer have the habit of breastfeeding and after breastfeeding again, the baby will start to be irritable and fussy due to the unfamiliarity. Manifestations of children's hunger, thirst, loneliness: According to experts from the American Pediatric Association, most babies when hungry will suck their thumbs. The baby's brain is stimulated like finding the feeling of the mother's milk, like being close to the mother. If the mother lacks milk, it will lead to the baby sucking but refusing to suckle.
2. Harm of thumb sucking
Children suck on unwashed thumbs: Unclean hands carry bacteria, fungi, .. Disorders of intestinal microflora, the introduction of Candida Albicans fungus into the oral cavity causes oral thrush in children, which manifests as small ulcers under the white membrane. When the baby has tongue fungus without timely treatment, it can cause the child to lose taste, pain from which he is lazy to suckle, and may even give up breastfeeding. Baby sucking fingers too deeply is easy to cause vomiting, especially after eating or sucking. But sucking has become a hard habit to break because the baby thinks it is safe. These two reasons combine to cause the baby to avoid sucking and cause the baby to suck but refuse to suckle. In addition to diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, unclean sucking causes children to contract other hand-to-mouth diseases such as hand-foot-and-mouth disease, influenza, chickenpox, and worm infections. When the baby has a strong sucking motion continuously, even chewing or using the finger tongue can cause some damage such as cracked finger skin again and again, more severe can ulcer and infection under the skin causing inflammation. pus skin. Children who suck their thumb often for a long time have a high chance of causing deformity of the finger bones, leading to an abnormal finger shape. When children older than 5-6 years old, in the period of tooth replacement, they still have the habit of sucking their thumbs, this will hurt their teeth such as tooth deformities such as overbite or underbite, misaligned bite, difficulty in pronunciation.
3. What should a 3-month-old baby do?
The fact that the baby can put his fingers in his mouth, proves that the organs that control movement and the muscles of the baby can coordinate at will. Usually, babies from 2 to 3 months old begin to have the habit of sucking their thumbs.
The sucking movement appearing in babies under 2 years old is a sign that the baby's brain is developing and starting to explore the world around. According to statistics, about 70-90% of babies suck their thumb, but after the first 6 months, the sucking reflex will decrease. Most babies will automatically give up sucking by the time they are 3 to 5 years old.
However, when the baby grows up and still has the habit of sucking his thumb, it will become an "incurable disease", which will cause many disadvantages to the health and development of the child. To help children give up the habit of thumb sucking, you can do some of the following actions to encourage your baby to stop sucking:
If your baby is hungry or thirsty, give him milk to meet his needs. If your child is lonely, play with him. If the cause is stress, you can comfort your baby with hugs, gentle words of comfort. When your baby makes accidental thumb sucking as a habit, you can gently remove his hand and distract him with other things. When the baby can talk, the baby sucks the thumb to show pain, anger, ... the mother can teach the child how to express his feelings verbally and teach the child about the harmful effects when the child sucks his or her thumb. When the baby's thumb sucking situation improves, the mother can encourage and reward the baby. Parents can make a colorful weekday calendar, mark the days when the child doesn't suck and encourage them to give up thumbsucking gradually. The interest in manual work can be reduced by using measures such as bandages or gloves for the baby's hands. In addition to helping children gradually give up the habit of sucking, the baby's refusal to suckle can be caused by other reasons, mothers can refer to some measures as follows:
If the cause lies in the amount of breast milk less Mothers can choose for themselves a reasonable diet to provide enough nutrition for both mother and baby. The mother's less breast-feeding makes the baby strange and stressful when suckling again, play with your baby more to help your baby get used to you again. In case the thumb sucking affects the digestive system with symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea, constipation, abdominal pain, or tongue fungus,... take your baby to the doctor for treatment.
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