Finger-sucking Experience

My 6 year old daughter still sucks her finger when tired to soothe herself. Her finger is very deformed and crooked. The dc told me to keep reminding her to keep her finger out of her mouth or distract her when she is sucking it, by getting her involved in something else or having her sit on her hands. I have had friends who have put the yucky tasting stuff that lasts for days on the finger, however that seems cruel to me. I am still struggling with this issue too. good luck!

Isaac sucked the middle two fingers of his right hand until he was around 2. I LOVED it-- SO much better than a pacifier-- he never lost his fingers in the middle of the night and woke up screaming because he couldn't find them, never dropped his fingers on a nasty floor....And i could tell when he was REALLY asleep and it was ok to move him because his fingers would fall out of his mouth.

Then one evening when he was 2 he put his fingers in his mouth, pulled them out, looked at them like "Ewwww, they have spit on them" and SCREAMED, then put his fingers back in his mouth, pulled them out looked at them and screamed -- he repeated that for about 2 hours...and hasn't sucked his fingers since....

Yep.

Nothing.

Until his teeth came in.

My daughter sucked her thumb in utero and until she was nine. However,
she only sucked it at home, never outside the home once she was like
2 1/2. Then one day the dentist told her to stop, and cold turkey, she did.
I guess I got lucky.

My son did this with his thumb. I did some research and decided to go ahead and get him hooked on a paci. You can take a paci away but not a finger. lol Also I was surprised to find many adult finger suckers that still did this for self soothing without really even thinking about it. So anyway every time I would try and take the paci away, in would go the thumb. He got off the paci at age three (naps and nighttime only) and never looked back or sucked a finger again. And they lived happily ever after :)
C.

My daughter discovered sucking her fingers around 3 months, which I found both endearing and terrifying. My husband was a thumb sucker as a small child, but I sucked my fingers all day, everyday, until I was 8.5. We both needed braces, mine required more intervention and I had to seek help to quit. We kept offering a binky when fussy and at bed and figured we'd deal with the finger sucking when she got bigger. Thankfully, she gave it up on her own around 9 months. My son discovered his thumb around 1.5 months, so we're sticking to the same plan and hoping he stops in his own like she did.

Ex-finger sucker here!
I sucked the pointer and index finger, upside down on my left hand until I was in either kindergarten or first grade...can't remember went to the same school those 2 years.
I held my blankie and earlobe w/ my other hand.
And now you know way too much about me. ;)
The outcome...umm....I still like to hold my earlobe when I'm sleepy.
My DH thinks it's kinda cute.
No teeth problems.
No shame.
Sigh* I wish curling up w/ my fingers, blankie and ear still made me so happy. :)
Oh and for the record I tried really hard to get my kids to take their fingers over the paci...no luck.

my experience only - my son as an infant sucked on my pinkie. it worked better than a pacifier for him (clean hands of course). at a few weeks old he discovered his own thumb, and he started sleeping through the night and never looked back. it was the most wonderful self-soothing method i could have hoped for. he is 4 now and i probably haven't seen him suck his thumb for close to a year and a half.

my 6 and 4 year olds STILL suck their thumb. It drives me crazy when my 6 year old does it in public. I usually have to tell her "take your thumb out of your mouth, if you want to do it, you can do it at bed time". My kids are both extremly stubborn though and I have no idea how long this will last. I've also tried the nail polish stuff and it didn't work

Hi, My daughter discovered her fingers when she was an infant. She would suck the index and middle fingers. We didn't try very hard to discourage it - she would do it when she was upset, or tired - it clearly soothed her. As she got older, she would only do it at home when she went to sleep, so we weren't concerned that she would be teased by her peers. We had to take action when she was 7 or 8 -- she had lost her two top teeth, but the adult teeth weren't erupting. Her finger sucking at night had prevented her teeth from coming down. My daughter did have some issues with her teeth, I'm not sure how many problems were caused by the finger sucking. But she did need to have a habit corrector placed in - which was a metal piece that blocked her fingers from going in her mouth. She also needed braces and a palette (sp?) spreader. However, I am not sure if the last two items were necessary because of the finger sucking... the habit corrector did work, however it was a little difficult, and very sad. The orthodontist suggested we keep it in for 6+ months so the habit was kicked. And, it did work. She had braces and the palette spreader for a little over a year. She's 13 now, and her teeth are gorgeous! Honestly, I don't know if we would have done anything differently -- such as discouraging her from sucking her fingers at an earlier age.