My 15 month old daughter is thumb-sucker and I'm not sure what to do! My Parent educator says to let her do it, research now shows it is not harmful and will not damage her teeth. However my pediatrician says to do whatever I can to make her stop because she will be prone to infection.
I wasn't really worried until lately - she has a huge callus on her thumb, which usually has an open cut from her teet, but I've now noticed that the area between her thumb and forefinger is always wet and moist inside leaving the skin so loose and pruny that it rubs off, leaving it raw.
I feel so bad trying to take her thumb away, so I don't know if this is really a big deal at all. It does not hurt her one bit. The Dr. recommended lemon juice, but she likes it. I refuse to put hot sauce, plus it is dangerous as she can get it in her eyes. She sucks band-aids off. I've tried a sock with a rubberband and that works, but she just screams and I feel horrible.
Has anyone went through a similar situation?
Two of my children sucked their thumbs. My pediatrician and dentist both said that they should quite by about 5. So, we are working on having the second one quit now, but she has never had any infections from it and the calluses go away.
I would not worry about it just yet.
Our two children both sucked their thumbs mostly when they were tired or needed comforting. They hardly ever got sick, there is nothing abnormal about their teeth, and they quit on their own. The thumb-sucking decreases once they go from observing play to participating (with two hands) with play. By first grade, every once in a while I'd see one of the kids sleeping with a thumb in the mouth, but it was rare. I don't think it's a big deal. And anyhow, just how clean are those binkies that fall on the floor 20 times a day?? It's natural. Just let it be.
I suppose the infection thing is possible, but kids all over the world suck their thumbs, and I've never heard of terrible things happening from it. I agree with your parent educator. I think things that comfort them (thumbs, blankies, binkies) should not be taken away. With all the stress in life, how nice would it be if we as adults could be so simply comforted by something?
My oldest had a blankie, my middle a binkie, and my youngest a thumb and blankie. I couldn't bear to remove that pleasure from them and figured it was worth whatever it cost later. The fact that you feel horrible is your instinct telling you to let her have it.
The worst thing that will possibly happen is she might have to get braces someday, but that often happens anyway.
My daughter will be 7 in May. She sucked her thumb from 4 mos until about a year or so ago. I was worried at first. She practically sucked her thumbprint off...haha! When she was old enough , I told her she needed to stop sucking her thumb. The older she got the less she did it. I was told by her dentist that she could damage the roof of her mouth. She is fine, she doesn't suck it anymore and her teeth and mouth are fine.
A very difficult thing to do at 15 months. Try and wait until she is two amd understands more. With my daughter we used socks on her hands at night and it worked well. After about a week she no longer needed the socks. You could try pinning mittens on her hands for a few hours a day now, just to give her thumb a chance to dry out. Her thumb is more important to her than anything yucky you could put on it and I would be concerned that the lemon juice would make her wound worse. If you do cover her hand be sure she is busy playing ball with you or another two handed game. Make it fun! Wear mittens and play ball! Maybe Mommy could wear mittens too! Good luck from an old Mom of 3 and Grammy of 2.
