How to Stop Thumb-sucking - Saint Paul,MN

My neice is a thumb sucker (so was her mom) and their solution is that if she wants to suck her thumb she needs to go to her room to do it. She is very much the social butterfly so this is a very good deterant. The thumb comes out and she forgets about it. Unless she is tired or sick etc., she almost always chooses to take he thumb out & be a part of the action with the rest of the family. She is slowly breaking the habit.

I really don't have advice since none of mine were thumb suckers but I do have a funny story on my granddaughter. She was about 6 months old and she stuck her thumb in her mouth. Her momma was holding her on her lap and said to her "no... we aren't going to start that thumb sucking!" while pulling her thumb out of her mouth. My granddaughter looked at her momma and stuck her toe in her mouth, starting to suck on her toe. I said "ack.. Emma, that is acky" Which she looked at me with a smile and said "mmmm" smacking her lips! I still laugh when I see the pictures of her doing that. It pays to keep a camera close by.

What ever you do, DO NOT USE THUM as a deterrent. It is made with pepper and is extremely painful in a child's mouth. It is also abusive.

You don't say how old your daughter is TC. The younger a child is the harder it is to rationalize your own opinions into her mostly-feelings world. Why are you so attached to her stopping? It is a comfort to her and is not hazardous. If she is fed a healthy diet it won't even affect her teeth.

Give some consideration to waiting until she grows out of it. My mother made a huge deal out of sucking my thumb (THUM and all that) so I switched to nail biting. She won - I lost. Think long term ~ it will help her more than you can imagine.

I have a thumb sucker now too, she use to have a pacifer and let it go but went to thumb sucking. I told her its ok to do so, BUT only where I cant see her. So she only uses it at bedtime and naptime. We do talk about all the things that can happen with the sucking stuff and she gets pretty freaked out by how wrinklely her thumb gets some days. And I remind her as gently as possible that thumb sucking is more a little kid thing and she is a big kid (she is 4, and has 2 younger siblings). Remember, thumb sucking is a security thing and if you push too much, you can make it worse. My brother was a thumb sucker and by kindergarden gave it up completely. Good Luck!

Good luck. My daughter was 6 and she was still sucking her thumb and it was pulling forward her front teeth. We talked to her Dentist and he sent us to an orthodontist who made a device that prevents her from getting any suction on the roof of her mouth. It had something like rollers on it so when she stuck her thumb in it would roll off the roof of her mouth. We left it on for about three months and no more thumb sucking. It ran about $100 so it was a little spendy but we had tried everything else.

I have heard of people wrapping a thin bandage around the thumb/finger. That doesn't taste as nice as the finger, so the child stops sucking. Also, a nice gift (one that the Mom and child agree on beforehand) as a prize for stopping, has also worked well with friends and their kids.

I wish I knew. My 2 year old always has his thumb in his mouth. I tried the stuff that someone mentioned from Walgreens and it didn't work. I was considering the contraption from one step ahead but it's kind of expensive and you need one for each thumb. People seem to have good results with it though based on the reviews. Good luck.

My daughter was a thumb sucker from the moment she was born. The dr. said she had sucked her thumb in the womb.

When she was around 18 months, we started trying to get her to stop. By two, she would not suck it unless she was tired or ready for bed. We tried the nasty stuff you paint on, wrapping it, and every other "remedy" recommended to us. Nothing worked. When she started seeing the dentist at 3, he said that her teeth were not damaged and that we would keep an eye on it.

Well, as she grew older, she would suck her thumb only when she was asleep. Even as old as 14 or 15, I would go in at night to kiss her goodnight after she was sleeping, and I would pull her thumb out of her mouth. If I told her the next morning that she was sucking it, she would deny it, because she was not doing it consciously.

Today, at age 30, as far as I know she no longer sucks her thumb. I don't know when she finally stopped. She has a beautiful smile and is a beautiful girl (not that I am at all prejudiced!). My advice would be to keep encouraging her and use the stuff you paint on, bribes, or whatever else is recommended. Let your dentist keep an eye on her, and as long as her teeth are okay, I wouldn't freak out about it. If she continues it in public as she gets older, her friends will probably tease her, which may help. Luckily, my daughter never sucked her thumb in public, so I don't know if the teasing would have helped her stop!

My 10 year old was a thumb sucker. We just made a point of popping it out of his mouth each time he put it in during the day and not letting him talk with it in his mouth. We did this for probably a month or so and before we knew it he had stopped.

There's a product called Thum, and you can get it at Walgreen's in the baby section. It goes on like nail polish, but tastes like Cayenne, and is nasty enough to discourage thumb sucking, but not toxic.

You could also just be really vigilent in pulling her thumb out of her mouth and remind her that it's not appropriate or will hurt her teeth and may need to see the dentist/orthodontist if she keeps it up.

Or, you could also check out this crazy contraption I have seen on www.onestepahead.com. Type in "thumb" under the search. It is a clear hard plastic thumb mold/brace that is supposed to make the thumb-sucking habit unpleasant to the child so they will be discouraged. They apparently have versions for the other fingers as well. Never used one...thought it looked pretty intense! I don't think I'd suck my thumb if I had to wear one of those things! LOL

Oh my goodness! I know what you mean! My first 2 took pacifiers and those were easy to get rid of, but my third (2 years old) sucks his thumb all the time! I don't know how old yours is and we haven't yet tried to completely "take away" the thumb sucking, but we are working on limiting it. We have told him that "thumbs are for bed." Whenever he sucks his thumb outside of bed he gets a warning and then if he continues he gets put in his bed until he is ready to stop. He understands this and is even beginning (barely) to self-correct. Hope this helps!

I just want to tell u my mom's experience with me. I actually sucked mine till i was 7. I was an airforce brat so it was my security. I now am facing it with my son :(
Mom always tells me that when she gave up trying to stop it that is when i did quit on my own. She tried everything tabasco sauce on my thumb, a sock on my hand, and many other things. I would just wake up crying with the tabasco so i would get a drink of water and then i would have it back in my mouth. I think that it is easier and not as stressful to just let her stop on her own. I hope this helps. You arent alone in this!