Sucking fingers during A time

[arabesque]

Hi,
My DS Toby (16 weeks) spends a lot of his A time sucking his fingers...should I be trying to engage him in other activities or is it okay to let him do this? He does hold toys, wave them around, kick on his mat, have a bit of tummy time but then he reverts to sucking. Maybe he is bored - I'm finding it hard to "entertain" him for 1.5-2 hours at a stretch!

At the moment I am trying to stretch him to 2 hours A time so I'm a bit inclined to let him suck, as long as he's awake.

Any thoughts?
Thanks Bec

[aisling]

Hi Bec,

He is starting the age where not only is finger sucking fun, soothing and feels good on gums, he is also using this to become more aware of his senses.  The taste, mouthing phase is how he will explore his world right about to 16 months old. So believe it or not, he is doing an activity.  Just like older children, you want to engage them, play with them, offer ideas with what to play, read with them, but then there needs to be some down time and time to play alone too in activity time and your LO is independently playing and having a down time sucking his fingers. At the same time he is getting ready to put every toy or object in his mouth one day to better understand how things work and discover what things are.  So long story short,  everything is fine and I wouldn't a change a thing at the moment.

HTH,

Aisling x

[arabesque]

Wonderful! Thanks