Thumbsucking - Staten Island,NY

Some kids need more oral stimulation than others. If you try to force him to NOT suck his thumb, you could do more damage than sucking his thumb at that age is doing.

My 4 yr old grandson is still sucking his thumb... he will quit when he is ready. We are trying to limit where he does it, though, since his thumb is frequently in his mouth, not just at bedtime and such. (We tell him we can't understand him when he is sucking his thumb, etc....)

so IMO you will do more damage to try to get him to stop. is it a problem that he does it? i sucked my thumb until i was 8. i asked my mom for a thumb guard, and stopped. he will stop on his own TRUST me. and he is still really young.

My 6 year old still sucks her thumb from time to time. Often when relaxed or just before bed. I just remind her and she removes it. She assures me she never does it at school.

As well, she sucked her thumb in the ultra-sound images.

Hi R.,

I'm sure you got some great answers here, but just for perspective,
I was 8 before I quit sucking my thumb. My teeth weren't bucked,
and I grew up to be a happy, productive citizen. Bottom line:
don't worry about it. They grow out of it. ;)

"Grams"
from the Pocono Mts. of PA

Nope, once they find their fingers they will suck it even in their sleep when they feel that need to suck. Just keep trying to distract him from it.

Okay, well my 4 year old is too and I debated over and over if I should try and get her to stop. So, we tried...and then we gave up. It just isn't worth it. She does it all the time...it is so annoying, drives me crazy, but the truth is, there just isn't anything I can do about it, so I have declared forfeit! My pediatrican says that all the latest studies say that there are actually no significant differences in dental/mouth problems between kids who suck their thumbs and kids who don't. Now, the possible hole in this theory is that almost all the studies have been done on kids who are 3 and under. So they are still sort of inconculsive for our particular children, well mine at least, I suppose your son is still in the window for another 6 months! Supposedly most kids stop by the time they are 5 but my daughter has been such an adamant thumb sucker since before birth (yes we have ultrasounds of her doing it! LOL!) that I always quiz people who comment on it and in my "research" almost everyone I've asked said that they or their child didn't stop until between about 7-9. It's kind of heartbreaking really. Anyway, this was a long answer to say, try not to stress and don't waste the energy trying to get him to stop.

I agree with the others, don't stress over it. I have a 9 year old who sucked hers constantly. When she was 4 we started to limit it to home and in the car. Then we moved on to just in her room, and eventually in her bed. That gave her an outlet to still suck if she needed to, but it broke the habit part. Now with my youngest we are doing the same thing and it seems to be working for the most part. Both my girls go to the dentist regularly and neither one has any issues. Good luck!

So embarassing....but I sucked my thumb until I was a teenager. I was breastfed and my mom weaned me in one day flat after I got my first tooth and nipped her. Everyone told me that I started sucking my thumb right after that.

I got tons of disapproval from everyone in the family while they tried everything they could think of to make me stop. My thumb was dipped in hot sauce, they put bandaides on it, etc, and everyone shamed me. When I was around 6, I became pretty sneaky about it. Then by the time I was 14 or so, the need just faded away. I wish they all would have just left me alone!

Can you just let him do it and let the need to suck go away by itself?

I too had this issue with my daughter who is now 12. Your son is still little, relax and he will too and he will stop sucking his thumb when HE is ready:) Does your son have some type of comfort blanket or studffed animal that he sucks his thumb with? My daughter had a bunny and in 1st grade when she was ready to try to stop sucking her thumb (only at night was she still doing it) we took the bunny away, made a bed and put it on her shelf. She needed extra comfort for a few days but it worked like a charm:)

hi,
I will just leave it alone too.And may be limit it at just bedtime ,naptime and T.V but not on errands or playground for instance.If you insist too much it could actually backfire and he will end up sucking his thumb even longer.He will eventually stop when he is ready.I didn't suck my thumb but i did suck and twirl my hair FOREVER like well into my teens.Well, I am 35 now and the hair sucking is long gone.:-)
Hope this help.
N.