My Son Is Constantly Sucking on His Fingers!!!

D., go to a beauty supply store and get a polish that tastes NASTY.. It's meant to stop people from biting their nails. After a few times of this he'll find something else to suck. Worked like a charm w/ my now 11 yr. old daughter when even @ 4 1/2 she refused to give that thumb up.
A.

This could either be a security thing or a soothing thing. If its a security thing, you will have problems later as well. If its a soothing thing, than he'll out grow it. Not much you can do. You can talk to his pediatrician. My sister has a 12year old daughter that still suckes her fingers and its all due to the fact that my sister has been very abusive to her kids and always screaming or hollaring, when I took her kids in for her for 4 months, I had her broken from sucking on her finger. I had asked her why she sucks on her finger and she just shrugs. See my sisters kids when they were small were very badly abused by my sister and her husband would never allow the kids to play or do kid things. When my sister left her husband all she would do that I know of is yell and scream at them. It breaks my heart, but those kids have high stress levels. If any child has high stress levels they tend to do things we don't approve of or understand. My middle child is 10 years old and wets to bed alot, due to the fact that her dad never wanted anything to do with her since she was born. He was around until she was one, than just up and left, which made her really insecure. Than I had her okay with everything and things fell apart for me, so I had to put them in their fathers care for a few weeks. I had to move in with my sister (the one I was talking about above) and had gotten my girls from their dad, and found out that not only have my girls been emotionally hurt from him and his friends, but as well as my sister and her husband. I had to try to find a safe place for them, so I can nurture them better, but didn't have the means to do what I needed to do. Now, we're in a better place and have been for 4 1/2 years. She has nightmares from when she was younger and I understand that, but she starts wetting when her levels of stress go up.
I just hope and pray that your son isn't under a lot of stress and some people say kids don't understand. Everyone would be surprised what kids really know! They can see and hear everything, and they understand life way better than any adult! Good Luck.

My son (3 1/2) was doing that every now and then, so I was putting vinegar on his fingers...that stopped it right away! You could get a little spray bottle to carry with you and give it a try. Good luck!

Hello!
This may sound totally stupid and unbelievable to you, and maybe my little guy was just about ready to give it up anyway I don't know, but here goes:
To get my son to stop sucking his thumb we just started to quietly and calmly remove his thumb from his mouth and quietly say "no thumbs". At first he cried a little but we kept doing it and after a couple of weeks you could just look at him and he would pull his thumb out like, "oh! I forgot!" Then a couple weeks after that we would only see his thumb in his mouth if we went to check on him in the middle of the night. Like I said, you may be saying "yeah, right" but it really did work for us. He was about 16-18 months at the time.
Good luck!!
J.

How about lemon or vinegar?

I don't have very good news for you. My daughter is 8 years old and we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. She has sucked her 2 middle fingers for as long as I can remember. We tried to break her of that habit even before she reached 2 but it didn't work. We thought she would finally stop because other children would make fun of her in Kindergarten however that didn't seem to be enough either. We tried rewards, punishments, medicines, hot sauces, bribes, criticism, praise and nothing worked because she wasn't ready to quit. Finally, she no longer sucks her fingers, not even at night while she is sleeping. She did it at her own pace and in her own way. The good news is that her dentist said in spite of how long she sucked her fingers, she still does not require braces. And the lumps on her fingers are almost gone as well. My suggestion is don't give up on trying to make him stop, but don't be surprised if he doesn't for quite a while yet. I know it's very frustrating but it won't last forever.

Have you spoken to your dentist about this problem? I remember there is a bar they can put in the roof of his mouth that will help a lot. It doesn't actually cut the fingers or the thumb the child is wanting to suck on but it makes the activity so uncomfortable the child will stop. At least they did this when my brother was young (he is now 47 and still had them when my children were young (20 years ago).
Because he does this all of the time the idea of socks over his hands a night or mittens he can't remove at night won't solve the problem for you. You have all ready tried bandaging and hot sauce so I don't think any of those products will help much but I know a friend that used to use bitters on her children's fingers to get them to stop and it seemed to help.
Just a suggestion.

I have two daughters (4 and 2)one is a thumb sucker and one is a two finger sucker. I had been worried about the effects of this bad habit. The dentist had the best advise: get rid of the blankets!! My children sucked their fingers/thumb when they were holding on to their blankies. We are still working on the suck and losing the blankets. We are no keeping our special blankets in the bedrooms only. It is helping. We see less sucking than a month ago.

Best of luck and call the dentist!!

I am a recovering finger sucker. I started as a baby and continued into my late teens (only at bed time). I had a blanket that I also slept with. My mom was told that some kids just need a comfort item. Just to let you know, I have no lasting effects from it. My front teeth are perfectly straight (without braces) and my fingers are working and normal. As for advice...I agree that maybe if there is a special blanket involved and you remove it or just allow it at bed time maybe it will help cut back. I know that it made my parents crazy but I ended up ok. Good Luck!

My daughter is 21 months old and sucks her first two fingers. It seems to be a comfort to her. She sucks periodically during the day but especially at night time. I spoke with her dentist who said that it will not become a problem until the permanent teeth come in. She recommends starting at 3 years old to break the habit so there is plenty of time. She said that the majority of children stop on their own before three and if she doesn't, then we will discuss ways to help her stop then. I think you should talk to the dentist...they will probably have the best ideas.

I know that my friend made a pact with her thumb-sucking son. He could only do it right before bed when trying to fall asleep. It worked for them - he was 3 years old at the time.

If you find something that works well, please let me know as I am going to be going through the same thing as you!

We had a similar issue with my daughter when she was small - but it was her thumb. I'm still baffled as to why her thumb turned red, blistered and peeled and looked so awful when she really only sucked her thumb at night. I've seen kids suck their thumb almost constantly and theirs are fine! Anyway, we bandaged her thumb - band aid and that medical tape - it was huge by the time we wrapped it all up tight so she couldn't get any pieces of it off! She had a little trouble falling asleep the first two nights but, since she was so young, I guess (under 2 yrs), it was fairly quick and "painless". I'm glad we ended up having to do that, now. I'm thinking it would be much harder to break her of that habit at an older age! Hopefully someone else will have some good advice if the bandaging doesn't work!

My daughter uses to do the same thing...we bought the stuff you use on kids to get them to stop biting their nails...I can not remember the name of it(sorry) you can buy it at Wal-Mart or any drug store. It tastes SOUR when they put it in their mouth. All you have to do is paint it on like nail polish and let it dry. You could also try ALUM. It wont hurt him and it has the same effect. Our Ped Dr gave us the suggestions. We tried the nail biting stuff first and it worked. I hope everything works out for you!!!! GOOD LUCK

My youngest was the same with thumb and first finger. He did not actually stop until he was 8+. But to help the finger to heal, we had to put a bracelike thing so he couldn't bend his elbow. We only used this at night so as not to restrict his movement during the day. I took 2 short sticks and covered them with tape so there was NO chance of splinters, I put this on his arm so that he could not bend it and taped around the arm at both ends and the middle. Not much help during the day but the finger got enough of a break that it didn't bleedand get even worse.

My boyfriend's 8 year old daughter sucks on her middle & ring fingers. They just put braces on her, the dentist blamed the finger sucking. His advice was to take popcycle sticks and tape them to the outside of those two fingers. That way she couldn't bend them to go into her mouth. It seems to be helping some.

Good luck!

Hey D.! My son is 18m and he sucks his thumb still. He used to do it all the time. Now he only does it when he needs the comfort- if he is tired or scared or just uneasy. He doesnt mind me taking it out, but it wont take long for him to do it again. I have tried every thing too! I dont know if there is a good cure.. but I am hopefull! :)

I can't wait to see the responses because my 14 month old daughter SUCKS two fingers like crazy!! I wish you luck with this as well as myself.