belly button and sucking thumb

[boosty]

my daughter is 27 months old . she has never taken a passifer and i breast fed her for two months. she started sucking her tumb when she was 5 months if i remember correctly. she only sucks her thumb when she wants to fall asleep or when she lays down and gets sleepy as watching t.v. other than that, she doesnt do it. my bigger problem is that it is now 6 or 7 months that she sticks her finger all the way in her belly button and plays with it. most of the time she isnt aware shes doing it cause she isnt thinking about it while shes doing it. and lately, when she sucks her thumb to relax, the thumb goes in her mouth while the other finger MUST go in her belly button. what is this and why does she do this? can it over stretch her belly button or hurt her? i put on one -c's on her sometimes but shes growing out of those . shes pretty tall. so i cant keep her from putting her finger in her tata (belly button. ) any advice will help . thank you

[April2]

What about giving her something to hold onto like a blankie or soft stuffed animal? That wouldn't be too stimulating I would think. Talk to your pediatrician next time you bring her in and see what he says. Maybe he'd have some ideas or something. Good luck!

[boosty]

thank you for your comment. i do know that shes doing it out of comfort reasons. but the only thing that makes me have a problem with it is that she puts her whole finger in it and turns it and when she takes it out, all of her belly button has come all out if you can picture it. and you have to kind of rub your hand over it for it to go back inside. it just looks terrible. she takes bandaid or whatever you put on it out. and if you give her something to hold, then she gets up and wants to play with it so it ruins the mood of her wanting to sleep and lay down and suck her thumb. you know? i wont worry about it much but if you were to see the look of her belly button after she pulls her finger out, you would be really freaked out too. :)  
thank you for your advice again.

[April2]

Boosty, I wouldn't be too concerned. She's just found something that gives her comfort. Some kids twirl their hair and suck their thumbs. My daughter used to hold the corner of a pillow and rub it while she sucked her thumb. Of course all our pillows wound up getting pretty grimy and misshappen but it gave her comfort! I think this is just something she's latched onto right now but I really don't think it will be lasting. And I really don't think she'd be able to stretch out her belly button either. You can try to distract her by putting something in her hands when you see her doing it, something she can look at. How about getting her a music box that she could hold and watch the pictures and listen to the music? That might be enough of a distraction! Just a thought. Have you tried asking your pediatrician about it and getting his opinion? What would happen if you put a band-aid on it? Would she get mad and try and take it off? If so, then I wouldn't push it. Probably if you don't make a big deal out of it she won't either. I would try having her hold onto something else and see how that goes, like a blankie or something. Give it a try. It can't hurt. Hope any of this helps!