2 Year Old Thumb Sucker's Thumb Is Red and Irritated

Twins that I care for, 2 years old, both are thumb suckers.
Recently one got an infection in her thumb when it became red and irratated. The infection spread to her mouth.
Antibotics cleaned it up so please keep a close eye on her thumb. It was swollen and red. Now she is sucking her thumb happy as can be. My daughter sucked her thumb and we tried everything to get her to stop including the stuff you put on thier thumb to get them to stop. She would spit it in the sink and suck some more. When she was ten years old her thumb got infected and she did stop. When she was younger, after she started K, we would tell her she could suck her thumb as much as she wanted at home but not at school or in public and that worked. Some babies and kids need more sucking than others.

she will have to try to temporarilly switch thumbs. her teeth are probably causing the issue at hand but it will resolve. my daughter went through the same thing and it only bothered her for about 10 days.

Reminds me of my firstborn little boy whom I am convinced was sucking his thumb in utero! He also had a red raw thumb for days at a time and we tried a lot of things none of which worked as I recall. He tried not to suck it or to use the left thumb instead. but it never did get infected and he did outgrow it. In those days (my son will be 57 this Thursday) they used to sell little "thumb cages" that you tied around the wrist after enclosing the thumb so it had this little metal contraption around it and unable to fit into the mouth. We also tried to put things on the thumb that didn't taste good, but they were quickly licked off.

I love to see little ones sucking their own thumbs rather than a pacifier. They seem more willing to take the thumb out knowing that it is under their own control and close at hand (always) in order to smile and converse.

Since she is verbal and a girl you might talk her into putting some gauze around it and playing "nurse" wrapping up the "sick" thumb and patting it. Keeping it dry will help it heal, but I don't know of any medication you can put on it that is not harmful for her to suck.

Good luck...it will get better and she will eventually find other ways of comforting herself. She can start taking care of that precious thumb of hers that has afforded so much pleasure !!

Enjoy this stage with your wonderful family!! Blessings on you all....N.

I bought capsules of vitamin E and cut them open and spread it on my son's thumb when it got red and raw. I felt better about using this since it is obviously meant to be ingested. I haven't tried it yet but I also found aloe vera gel that is meant to be taken as a vitamin supplement (I found it a whole foods but they might have it elsewhere). I haven't tried this yet but aloe is supposed to help in healing so I will try this next time along with the vitamin E.

Greetings S.: As the mother of 5 and the grandmother of several little angels--- Good for you, not to be all worried about your childs sucking on the thumb.
None of mine ever missed a day of work, did less in college or had a lost love because of sucking on the thumb!
I will suggest that your little one may have done what my childdid and bruised his thumb. The doctor said that it was caused from the sucking and that with time would heal- it did. So time and patience. Nana G

Dear S.,
My daughter was a thumb sucker as well. She definitely had a favored thumb, but sometimes the one she prefered would get quite sore and she would just have to resort to using the other one. It's kind of like being in the bathtub too long and you get all pruney. Her little thumb just needs a break and to dry out as much as possible. If it gets sore enough, hopefully she'll use the other one and you can maybe lightly wrap some gauze on the sore thumb to help her remember not to put it in her mouth, but it definitely needs to breathe so I wouldn't advise a band aid directly on the skin. Air is the best thing for it.

Best wishes!

Vaseline was reccomended by my pedi. Also aquaphor. Both have helped my son!

We would use Aquaphor during the day & put a cotton glove on it to help it heal. It worked when we did it as part of dress-up.