Ideas to Stop My 5Yo from Finger-sucking

my advice is to let him outgrow it naturally. especially if the only time he does it now is when he is stressed or tired. i think he has shown a lot of maturity and is being a really good boy not doing it all the time just out of habit - a lot of adults have bad habits they don't have the fortitude to break. so good for him. if he needs comfort during stressful situations i don't see why you would want to take that away from him. i really disagree with parents who stress their kids out trying to pressure them to quit doing something that is natural, harmless, and provides comfort to their child. the more you pressure him, the more stressed out he will get, and the more he will want to suck on them, but he will know that to make you happy he can't, which will cause him guilt if he does it, and more stress if he doesn't...agony! why put them through that! most kids stop naturally when peer pressure kicks in and they don't want to do it around their little friends, anyway. i just don't think it's worth putting even more pressure on him.

I don't know this is the right way, but we just did it with my 7 year old, and I think it has actually worked. She knew that it was not good for her teeth, or speech to suck her fingers, but found it extremely difficult to stop. We had been trying for about 2 years. About a month ago, we put duct tape on her two fingers (not tight, just there...like the bandaid). We replaced it every few days, and I can say that we have not seen her fingers in her mouth....even at night (and I wasn't even worried about stopping that part yet, it was a bonus). She has not had the tape on her fingers for about two weeks, and we were just on a long car ride (definatly would have put finger in her mouth before during this) and the fingers did not go in once.

Maybe she was just finally ready, but she claims that it was the tape that did it. Hope this helps.

My daughter is 5 and we have battling the thumb! So frustrating isn't it but have to say it was such s comfort when she was little and obviously still is! Was just talking to the dentist about it b/c we tried to use a band aid on her thumb or wrapping it but she resorted to get other one! Couldn't believe it! The dentist printed us a copy of what's kids teeth look like when you suck your thumb( plus other things but we didn't tell get that!) and I think until she really saw how yucky it looked she us realizing (albeit slowly!) she wanted the pic by her bed as a reminder but have to say we put her to bed w/o her special blanket and the three times I checked on get she wasn't sucking! Good luck. I feel your pain!

The only product that worked for my son was Mavala Stop, from: http://www.whatshebuys.com/masttwobo.html

It is abolutly the worst tasting nail polish there is and it stays on for a very long time. You have to buy 2 bottles, but it's so worth it.

If you don't want to do that, talk to your pharmacist, she may have a product behind the counter that is suppose to be terrible tasting too.

Good luck.

I sucked my thumb until age 7. I stopped when the dentist told me to after he explained how my teeth were moving, how I had an overbite, and about braces. Obviously I was ready to let that comfort habit go b/c it was really easy. I agree with your other poster about letting him set the pace and stop on his own. If he only does it when he is tired and stressed, try to accept it! As he gets older and grows he will develop another coping strategy when tired and stressed. The more pressure you put on him probably the worse it will get. Like they say, no one walks down the wedding aisle in diapers, I've never seen anyone sucking their fingers either!

I work at a preschool and have seen Moms trying to help their little ones get over this. I'd go to the local pharmacy and see what they recommend to apply to the fingernails that will help your son stop sucking. I know there are products out there, you may want to Google this and see what is available. I have had a number of Moms who have applied these products and it helps almost immediately. I'm not sure what the products are called that you apply, but they seem to work. As a teacher, also I have used a continual reminder "Please take your fingers out of your mouth", helps too. As a mom tell him too that sucking her fingers is not good for his teeth. Tell him too it will make his teeth stick out. Hope this helps.