Stopping the Thumb-sucking

I tried the velcro things...they do not work @ all!!! My daughter would just pop them off her thumbs. I haven't found anything that works yet. Good luck!

Ok...I know this sounds mean...and I might get some comments back...my kids never sucked their thumbs so I never had to use it but my mother used it and so did my sister and so did a few of my friends and it did work...just put a little drop of mild hot sauce or taco sauce on both or her thumbs,she wont like the taste of it and will stop sucking on them. It work for my mother, sister and friends...you might have to do this several times till she gets the hints....good luck.

There is a wonderful resource in Buffalo Grove, IL -- A retired dental hygeinist Shari Green, she was a lifesaver for my now 13 yo daughter who was sucking her thumb until we webt to Shari when she was 8. Check out her website at www.thumblady.com. We did everything possible to get her to stop sucking her thumb but the only thing that worked was Shari's program. There is a cost but Shari was worth every penny! Good Luck.

my advice to you is that eventually almost every kid needs braces starting around 3rd or 4th grade because that is when there palate is still pliable. I wouldn't stress out about it. There are so many other things in life that are bigger worries. I have three kids ages 11,15 and 17. My youngest was a pacifier boy. He was put into a palate expander at age 10. He's fine! If your little girl needs to de-stress with her thumb, don't be obsessed about it. My 15 year old niece still sucks her thumb in bed at night. Most kids however, eventually give the habit up. Remind her when you so her sucking during the day, but don't get mad or put some appliance on. Your dentist sounds way too aggressive!

I am also a stay home mom with 4 children. I was in the same situation and got a different opinion from my pediatrician. Thumb sucking is their way of calming themselves down...if you notice, she probably only does it at bedtime, or when settling down to watch a movie or listening to a story. We tried all of the same things with no luck, we even bought thumb guards through the dentist ($199). She found out how to get them off. She would cry when we tried to stop her, so it was hurting more than helping. The dentist told us about an appliance that has little prongs that is affixed to the roof of the mouth to make it uncomfortable to put the thumb there. Like you said midieval. We would remind her to stop when we caught it, we would tell her she would make her teeth croocked and need braces. It wasn't until we seen the orthodontis, when she was 8, that we got her to stop. By this time she had caused the roof of her mouth into a more triangular shape. To fix this problem, she needed an expander. This also covers the roof of the mouth and prevents them from sucking their thumbs but in addition it widens it. From there she was in braces by the time she was 9. She hasn't complained at all, and has been very good about taking care of them. The treatment cost about $3000 and she will have the braces on for 10 months (1 month of the expander only). I guess our experience with braces could have been worse. I guess it all depends on your stand point. I wanted her to have a way of calming herself down when she was little, and the thumbsucking was taken away at an age where she was more equipt to express herself. By the way...I have a 5 year old boy that sucks his fingers too, and I plan on taking the same approach if need be.

ooooh does that take me back! My daughter was a mighty thumbsucker, as was her best friend....she sucked her thumb quite often. I, and her friends mom tried everything that you described above that you tried, but they got tricky...eventually they weaned themselves down to only sucking their thumbs is stressful situations at about 5 or so...but they were not quite finished with it until much later at about 10 when we moms finally bribed them with money and they stopped cold turkey....never saw it again in either of them. I think the more we dwelled on trying to stop it, the worse it got, so I decided to dwell on something else, like getting her to clean her room etc... I would say...dont obsess about it.....there are more important things to worry about later.....(trust me on this one....my daughter is almost 21 now.)

I used to suck my finger. When I was older then your daughter, my dentist put a "devise" in my mouth. It attached to the top teeth and had a piece that hung down from the roof so that my finger wouldn't fit. I don't remember it bothering me much. Do it now and don't wait. I had alot of correcting to do after that. I was already in grade school.

My daughter is same age, same problem. Different dentists have different philosophies. I've tried everything and nothing will work until she's ready, so if it were me I wouldn't buy the velcro. I was told not to make an issue of it, but I did, and honestly I wonder if it would have gone away sooner if we'd just ignored it and onlhy given gentle reminders. My attitude now is, she'll probably need orthodontics anyway. The only real danger is changing her palate shape, and our pedi dentist says it's not that big an issue for most. He suggests giving positive feedback whenever she DOESN'T have the thumb in her mouth. "It's so nice to see your whole face/smile" etc. Good luck!

I've known several people who have had it done for their child and it's not as midevil as it sounds LOL! Just think of it as a retainer that she can't take out. I'd say go for it, they do work. Good luck!

Dear M.,

I practice general dentistry in Franklin Park. We treat children and adult patients. An appliance can be made to break your child of the thumb sucking habit. If I can be of assistance, please call me at ###-###-####. If our office is not within a reasonable distance for you, I would be happy to help you find an office in your area.

Sincerely,

Dr. D. R. Pietrini

My niece is 4 and still sucking her thumb. Like you my sister has tried everything. She bought the thumb guard recently within the last month. It has really seemed to help. There are periods of time when she does not wear it and does not suck her thumb. I would say give it a try. I will be faced with this also. My 11 month old daughter is a thumb sucker.
I hope this helps.

C.

Braces .... later (seems like an easier solution to me). My 4 year old sucks his thumb, and like you, I've resisted the medieval type solutions.

Hi There!

We are going through the same thing with my 3 yr old son. I wonder why exactly the dentist told you she needs to stop NOW. The reason I ask that is due to that fact that (a) I sucked my thumb until I was about 6 or 7 and never needed any work on my teeth, no braces, nothing. Also, (b) I have heard from numerous dentists that sucking the thumb does not affect the teeth so much that drastic measures need to be taken. This is just what I have been told. You should of course follow the advice of your dentist if he or she is whom you trust.

What has worked best with my son so far is allowing him to only suck his thumb at bed time, since it is a comfort thing and he uses it to fall asleep. Other than that, he is getting used to not sucking at all during the day. Try rewards for when your daughter is not sucking her thumb, or when you catch her doing it, bribe her to stop!

Good luck!!

I have 4 and 2 year old sons who both suck their thumbs. I'm kicking myself now for not nipping it in the bud with the 4 year old before addiction since he didn't start until 19 or 20 months old...after my second son was born! I let it go as a temporary reverting because of the new baby, and now he is more attached to his thumb than my 2 year old. Anyway, our dentist wasn't TOO concerned since efforts to stop the thumb sucking at this age often backfire and the child is more drawn to it for fear it will be taken away. Peer pressure should help wean it away when starting school is the theory. When my son went to summer camp last year, he slowed down with the thumb sucking for a while because his teacher told him not to suck his thumb...was more effective/convincing in his little mind, coming from someone else besides parents. We took his to be screened for speech and he did alright, though they told me to try to discourage the thumb sucking...easier said than done to do that without it backfiring and the child clinging even more to the thumb. I feel for ya...not really much of an answer for you, though that's been our experience with it so far. Best wishes!!

M.,

My two year 1/2 old daughter was a chronic finger sucker. I started using the "Thum" nail biting solution that I got at Walgreens when she was about 24 months. At first my daughter stopped sucking for about an hour and then would start up again as soon as it wore off. I decided to keep a bottle handy at all times and would reapply the solution every hour or so. I also used peppermint extract and the smell alone discouraged her. There was a period of about three weeks were I kept a bottle of either with me at all times and would just keep dabbing it on. She eventually stopped sucking completely after those three weeks. I also thought of a hand guard and would have done it if this didn't work. As long as she has lots of other ways to sooth herself, I think it is worth breaking the habit. My daughter's teeth were getting so out of line. They moved back to there regular place within a matter of months. I also considered getting a "MY Special shirt" It is a shirt I saw on line that is closed off at the end. That might be less intrusive than the wrist guard. I wish you luck.
Kerstin

My daughter sucked her thumb until she was four. We tried to talk to her about it, but it was such a habit that understanding that it would cause her problems later in life just didn't work. When we showed her the device with the velcro around the wrist she said that she could still suck the tip of her thumb with it on.

This might sound strange, but this is what worked for us. My oldest son, out of the blue, told her if she continues to suck her thumb it would fall off. She looked and my husband and I and asked us if it was true, and without a hint of a smile, we said yes. She is now six and hasn't sucked her thumb since that day.

We are in the same boat with our 3 year old daughter. What has been working somewhat is that she is sensitive to anyone having a boo boo. So when she saw that I had a cut on my right thumb (she sucks her right thumb), she was concerned for me. I told her I got it from sucking my thumb and asked if she could help make it better for me. My husband then chimed in (I was so proud of him)and said that he too had a boo boo on his right thumb from sucking his thumb and needed her help. So she put medicine and bandaids on both of our thumbs and then when I pointed out how dry and chapped her thumb was from sucking it, I said that we better fix your thumb to. She agreed and we talked about helping to remind each other to not suck our thumbs. I am bad about biting my nails and if she catches me biting them she tells me no and to take my finger out of my mouth. It is helping her make a conscious effort to not put her thumb in her mouth. This is not perfect by any means, but it is helping enough to get a good start.

Hope this helps!

We're going to give the Thumb Guard a try. I can't speak whether it really works yet or not (I just ordered it a few days ago) but many of the folks who reviewed it online seemed to see results in 2 weeks. It's got a 30 day guarantee so I figure what do we have to lose? http://www.thumbguard.net/english/ourproduct.asp
There are better pictures on amazon (where we also found it cheaper). We showed the pictures to our daughter and talked about the fun colored bracelets. She's excited about wearing the pink and purple so I am hoping for cooperation on her part. They have to wear it 24/7 for it to work and I thought the break between school and camps would be a good time for her to use it and break the habit. Good luck

Thumb sucking is a form of security for your daughter, is there a specific time she does it? Like does she do it during all activities? I'm just thinking if you can tackle the reason why she's sucking her thumb, it would be the best way to stop the reaction.

I really dont have any STOP advice on this my daughter is 15 and still does...however we did learn to watch her sucking behavior like whats happening when she does...is she bored or is she hungry or because she has allergies is she dry and tried to limit those times which help alot espeically since I tried all those other methods as well.... we also used a reward system which slowed down the sucking. Good luck!

The orthodontic device will work. And it's not medieval. I think palate expanders and braces are more medieval than that, plus they cost a lot more, and cause more pain. Been there done that. I think you should try it since nothing else seems to work. It worked for my nephew. Good luck!

The orthodontic thing isn't medieval, doesn't hurt, is not nearly as expensive as braces later, and does work. My oldest had it around age 11 or 12. She was nervous for the first few days and kept whining, "Oh, I wanna suck my thumb," but stopped after that. She required something else corrective but not braces. I don't think there's much that works to get them to stop; they stop when they want to. Some kids just have a lot of nervous energy - I did too - and it sometimes affects the teeth, sometimes not. Our dentist said the shape of the mouth to begin with is also a factor, so it doesn't necessarily lead to problems and it isn't really fair to blame the kid if the teeth turn out crooked. As to the security factor, many many people need security measures even into adulthood. Not a bad thing unless it becomes obsessive and a substitute for other forms of comfort.

I'm not sure of the cost of the orthodontic device, and if it is not seen by anyone outside of the family it would be better than several thousands of dollars of orthodontic work in the years to come.My daughter was a finger sucker to the point of calluses and we had to ivest $5000.00 to fix her teeth starting at 10 yrs. old. Anything you can do now would be a help. A.