How to stop kids sucking their thumb

[pebbles]

So the time has come to stop my 3 year old daughter to stop her sucking her thumb.

She only sucks it when she has her bunny rabbit which is only at night so we know we're going to go through a painful sleepless few nights but her teeth are beginning to look like Bugs Bunny so we feel it's about time.

So...... tell me how?

That horrible tasting stuff on her thumb

Thumb guard???

[SBot]

We used medala (not 100% on spelling) got it from amazon, it arrived in the post, we put a tiny bit on her thumb, and she sucked it once, threw up, due to the taste, it is common for this to happen, it's not poison!!! And she never sucked it again!!!thumbguards weren't small enough. The only issue we had was that she then struggled to settle herself to sleep, so be prepared for 1-2 bedtimes that are bit of a bother.

[jonbateson]

Goodness at the risk of, but not trying to be offensive, why would you do that? If she only does it at night for comfort, why take that comfort from her. Have you been advised by a dentist to stop her?

[pebbles]

Yup dentist has advised to stop as will now be affecting her grownup teeth - even though they obviously haven't come through now.

[oimissus]

Get a second opinion. I was well well well into double fingers before I stopped sucking my fingers - I sucked my fingers all day long, I had teeth marks permanently in 2 of my fingers which took years to go away. Never needed a brace. My sister, who stopped at a rather more reasonable age (prob about 7) did, though I have no idea if she needed the brace because of sucking her fingers or not. (And for what it's worth, my mum was a children's dentist, and she never tried to make us stop.)

Does your dentist absolutely put it down to her thumb-sucking? I know only one thumb-sucker who is 4 and whose teeth are fine. I would be surprised if your daughter's thumb was jammed up against her teeth, causing this level of problem, all night - surely once she's asleep it drops out? I'm merely saying that stopping your daughter sucking her thumb may not make this problem go away.

[Lacey]

Our 5 year old has always been a big thumb sucker -for comfort, in times of boredom etc. His dentist says we've 'got away with it' in terms of his teeth but now he is beginning to lose his baby teeth we need to work on it. We've tried the varnish but he just became accustomed to the taste so maybe thumbguard is our next approach, if gentle persuasion doesn't work. Anyone had success with it?

Our two year old meanwhile is a finger sucker and the effect on his front baby teeth is pretty noticeable.

[crystal7]

I was a thumb sucker well into double figures too and my teeth are fine. Both my children (4 and 1) suck theirs and the dentist didn't seem bothered. Now worried I'm going to have to stop them at some point. Argh!!

[Otta]

If she's down to just at night, I'd leave it and see how she gets on.

[Saffron]

It may well be worth getting a second opinion and also doing some research of your own, because dentists are not united on this issue.

Also, because thumb sucking at this age has often become an ingrained activity for comfort, it's not always as easy as just disrupting the habit with aversion therapy (bitter tasting stuff etc). Ideally you need to replace it with something else that's positive and comforting. Otherwise, you'll end up with rebound behaviour (where the thumb sucking becomes worse), or the behaviour can be subconsciously transferred into something else like nail biting.

I suspect that if you're able to break this habit with one round of aversion therapy and 1-2 nights poor sleep, the habit was not deeply ingrained in the first place. Eperience tells me that for many people it will not be this simple. Good luck. xx

[canela]

My sister in law is a dentist and says it makes no difference to teeth so read around a bit.

[simonethebeaver]

We are trying to stop a ten year old constantly sucking his thumb. We are desperate for him not to turn up at secondary school next year thumb in mouth. He is already the only child in year 5 who sucks his thumb throughout the day.

It is so ingrained that he has no idea he's doing it. We tell him off every time we see it but it's often back in his mouth seconds after he's taken it out. We're trying Stop and Grow but I don't think it's having any effect. Any tips on this?

[Saffron]

simonethebeaver Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> We are trying to stop a ten year old constantly

> sucking his thumb. We are desperate for him not to

> turn up at secondary school next year thumb in

> mouth. He is already the only child in year 5 who

> sucks his thumb throughout the day.

>

> It is so ingrained that he has no idea he's doing

> it. We tell him off every time we see it but it's

> often back in his mouth seconds after he's taken

> it out. We're trying Stop and Grow but I don't

> think it's having any effect. Any tips on this?

Aversion therapies on ingrained behaviours can sometimes make them worse. With what positive behaviours have you tried to replace the thumb sucking behaviour?

[simonethebeaver]

It's tricky. We've asked him to think of what else he might do with his hands but he's so very unaware of when he's doing it that he struggles to work it out. He does also bite his nails but far less frequently. I'm not sure what we do really. His teachers constantly pick him up on it too but I suppose none of us are doing anything to suggest a positive behaviour. He does it basically whenever he's not eating or doing physical activity.

[Saffron]

Yes, definitely try a combination approach. If he's doing it as an ingrained comfort, then offering a replacement behaviour and reward strategy along side an aversion therapy seems much more likely to get results. Otherwise, he's just being 'punished' for doing something that he finds comforting, without any proactive incentive to quit or other good behaviour to fill the gap.

[simonethebeaver]

Well, he gets computer time as a reward for chores and good behaviour so that would be the obvious thing. The only problem is that it means one of us constantly watching him to see if he's not sucking his thumb! I'm not sure what replacement behaviour we can come up with as he is sucking his thumb when most people are just, well, not. We've not tried to cut it down at bedtime or when he's alone, just during the day.

He has a first appointment with an orthodontist tomorrow morning which I imagine will focus on the thumb sucking. I have a lot of sympathy for him as his teeth need braces quite badly, but I don't think the thumb has anything to do with it. I had a huge overbite as a child, and ten years of braces, and it took them five years of that to work out that it was my jaw alignment and not my own thumb sucking habit.

[snowboarder]

Having a brace was what stopped me sucking my thumb at age 11 (although I did realise it was socially not really great in public/during the day before that!). I had a removable brace on my top teeth and just couldn't manage it at all. After a couple of miserable nights got over it though. My boys at 2 and nearly 4 are both big thumb suckers. I just haven't got the energy to tackle it right now....

[Saffron]

Sounds like a good proportion of the success was down to your own recognition that change was needed :) , something harder to instill in very young children.

Simonethebeaver, how was the orthodontist? Were you in agreement? (Curious, why braces so young, special circumstances? Teeth/jaw can change a lot during the teen years.)

Pebbles, any success? xx

[simonethebeaver]

Yes, the orthodontist was sound. Said thumb sucking might be causing some minor movement but wasn't making a big difference. He was referred because his front teeth really are quite wonky, but the orthodontist was cross about it and said the dentist should have waited given that he still has plenty of baby teeth. So we're on a watching brief, but treatment will definitely be needed.

I had my first brace (a removable retainer) at 10 though, because my teeth issues were so severe. I couldn't close my mouth over my teeth! The selling point was meant to be that I'd be done with braces before everyone else, but in the end, I went to university with traintracks!

[Convex]

I think it depends on how you suck your thumb

I stopped at 11 and my teeth are fine, slight overbite

My cousin was similar and he had terribly stuck out teeth and years of braces etc

I agree with getting the second opinion, but for what its worth I don't think it's cruel to get her to stop as long as she has some other way of self soothing which I'm sure you will help her with.

Stop and grow didn't work for me, I basically stopped when I felt it was time, not very helpful for a little one, sorry

[pebbles]

Thank you everyone for all your feedback and experiences. I have read and Mr P and I have discussed.

So we are going to try and stop her as her teeth are sticking out (whether this is due to thumb sucking or not we're not sure) but feel it's worth trying to stop the one thing that we can see as being the cause.

So she has 2 things that soothes her - her bunny rabbit and then literally the moment she holds her bunny rabbit her thumb goes into her mouth. She only has her bunny rabbit in bed (hence why she only sucks her thumb in bed) but interestingly she had a fall at the weekend and we gave her the bunny to sooth her (during the day) and in went the thumb!

So basically what i'm trying to say (and persuade myself!!!) is if we take away the thumb she will still have her bunny as her soother.

But.... we are still at a loss as to how to take away the thumb.

SBot - I couldn't find the medala - are you able to post a link please?

Any other ideas most welcome

[silkematt]

Me being Austrian- we used to have a bedtime storie about Thumb sucker(in Shock headed Peter- I think- that was not enought to make me stop as i sucked my thumb until about 13!

I was made to wear mittens at night that were tied to my wrists(mind you that was more than 30 tears ago) didnt work either!

Eventually I just stopped out of embarrasement- and by the way- my teeth are fine!

Good luck!

[nunheadmum]

Pebbles - your daughter sounds like mine....comforter and thumb go hand in hand. Although my daughter is 7! We've tried several times to get her to stop and have on the whole managed during the day - just by constantly telling her to take it out when we see her (and me getting rather annoyed, which isn't a route I'd recommend...it wasn't planned....but did seem to work as she does like to please). But as soon as Cuski comes out, the thumb is straight into her mouth.

We've considered trying to get her to stop at night but it clearly gives her a lot of comfort and it does come out as soon as she's in deep sleep, so we've kind of resigned ourselves.

We did get these gloves which a friend recommended and had success with:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aag/main?ie=UTF8&asin=&isAmazonFulfilled=&isCBA=&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&orderID=&seller=A3QC6G6ZJ7CMIU

They helped during the day but we didn't pursue them at night. My daughter did like them - we let her choose her design which was meant to help.

[J790137]

I have been selling children's thumb guards for a while and am now selling them online. http://www.kids-thumb-guard.co.uk stop you child sucking their thumb.