She Sucks Her Thumb!

My little girl sucked her thumb when she was a baby. She's 2 now, and her thumb only goes in her mouth if she's tired. Neither one of my kids really took to the pacifier. It doesn't look like *knock on wood* that I'll have a problem with my daughter and the thumb, maybe you'll have the same luck!

My 17 month old daughter is a thumb sucker and has been from day 1. It doesn't bother me, though, because she only has her thumb in her mouth for two reasons: shes hungry or shes tired. She isn't one of those kids that just walks around with it stuck in her mouth all day long, or one of the kids that wont even take it out to talk to you, they just point and grunt because their thumb is their mouth. I figure that as long as it is something that she only does a few times during the day it isnt a big deal. But if it continues past her 3rd B-day I might start to help her find something else to comfort herself with. Be ware though, I have a 12 year old sister in law that still sucks her thumb. That is going way to far. I really wouldnt worry about your daughter sucking her thumb right now. The bigger deal you make of it the more she will fight you on it and continue to do. If you want her stop, I would suggest that when you see her with her thumb in her mouth you can offer her something to hold; a favorite toy, a healthy snack... she cant have her thumb in her mouth if shes playing or eating.

My little boy started sucking his thumb just a few days after he was born ! My daughter she had to have a pacifier !!
Anyway, my son only sucked his thumb when he would be tired !
Never did he suck his thumb just to be sucking it!
Hopefully he will out-grow it ! It can really affect there teeth if they are sucking there thumb all the time !
Sucking a thumb could just be a security thing ! Like a pacifier !
Enjoy her being little they grow fast !! ~

My daugter ( now 15) had sucked her thumb also. We tried everything to get her to stop. She had her tonsils taken out at age 5. When she went to stick her thumb in her mouth, the nurse looked at us and her and said she cant do that. It carries all kinds of germs. She never did it again. As for her teeth, they are not crooked. The more you try to discourage, the more she may do it. Good luck.

Our family dentist says that thumb sucking and binkies aren't a bad thing, because usually kids are well weaned off of them before they lose their baby teeth, and the permanent teeth will come in just fine. It affects some kids worse than other, and yes it may give them buck teeth or slanted teeth after a while, but remember... those aren't permanent!

If you want to wean her off the thumb, my mom put vinagar on my brother's thumb, so that when he put it in his mouth it tasted terrible. I think they make a bad tasting solution that you can probably pick up at Walmart or Baby's R Us, made especially for kids.

I personally think that it isnt that big of a problem right now. It will eventually develop into a problem soon. I have a step-son (he'll be 2 in june) who does not live with me, but who would be better off living with me(in my opinion). He sucks his two middle fingers. When he is with us, he is not allowed to do it. Sucking fingers/thumbs will cause teeth problems and also speech problems...especially if they talk with fingers/pasifiers in their mouths. About a month ago, during a weekend visit with my step-son, I changed his diaper and found worms in his poo. I immediately called the doctor that I have for my 3 year old son and she told me that she was not able to fit him in that day, but asked me if he sucked his fingers/thumb. When I told her "yes", she told me that a very good possible way for him to have gotten the worms is from crawling around on the floor and also from touching things with dirt/dust and then putting his bacteria infested fingers in his mouth. There are all sorts of bacteria that live under the fingernails and when injested can cause worms to live in the intestines. The doctor advised me to either take him to the ER to get treated or that I could go to my local Walgreens Pharmacy and pick up some Reese's Worm Treatment for pinworms. Because my step son's mother refuses to send his medicaid card with him when he visits, I chose to take him to the pharmacy and speak with the pharmacist about it. It only took one application of the medication and they were gone within 24 hours. A few of the ways that we tried to keep his fingers out of his mouth was to take a soft robe tie and we tied his hand losely behind his back or to his side. For bed time/nap time we put a pair of his socks on both of his hands to keep him from taking the socks off and his fingers ending up in his mouth. The only time that he was able to use his fingers was during bath time and during dinner time. Now, we do not have to use anything to keep his fingers out of his mouth. He has figured out that it is not allowed here and is fine with it all. He is still allowed to suck on his fingers at his mothers house. At the moment that I found out about the worms, I contacted his mother before I even contacted the doctor due to believing that she should be kept informed with what is going on with him, as I would expect from anyone who had my child for the weekend. She was told the main cause of the worm infestation, but still has not done anything to prevent a reinfestation. I hope that this information about pinworms does not scare you, but I wanted to share the possibile outcomes with sucking fingers. But hopefully using socks on both hands will help you when trying to wean her.

I don't know if this will help you or not, but my dt did the same thing and we never discouraged her. She's now 3.5 and her teeth look so much like beaver teeth. They drive me nuts. Everytime I look at it I'm thinking it would have been so much easier to have put her on a pacifier instead of allowing her to use her own thumb. There's home grown techniques out there like the pepper or spices on thier thumb or bandages on thier thumbs, but we've let it go too far too long. I always thought I would be able to get her off of it soon but it has not worked yet. We give her reminders everyday/time that she does it. We try the route of "big girls" don't suck thier thumbs. Or you don't want to have beaver teeth do you? But she will not do it when we are around, but at night you can see that it totally goes in her mouth. When she's watching TV on the couch, and she also plays with her bellybutton too! I think the more that we have focused on it in the last year or so the more that she has been stuck to doing it. So, hopefully this will allow you to see that the habit is so addicting for them. If you can find a way to get her off of it now. There's not many solutions or suggestions out there to help you resolve the situation. I have cousins that sucked their thumbs well into thier early teens. There were lots of stories of parents dealing with kids who continued to suck their thumps once their permanent teeth comes in. That's where the bigger problem arises. So, if I had it to do it back again, I would have offered her the pacifier instead. But our oldest didn't need either and we were so anti pacifiers, but who knew that the thumb would have been a more difficult thing to deal with. Good luck to you.

I would try to break her from it now. My mom never tried to break me from it and I was still sucking on my thumb when I was 12 and 13 years old. I finally got braces to help with my front teeth cause they had started to buck out and the orthodontist put this metal thing in the top of my month for six months before he put the braces in and I wasn't able to get my thumb into my month and I ended up stopping then. But I don't want you to have to go through all of that with her and I don't think she will like it either. So if I was you I would try ASAP!!

I would break her of it as soon as possible.

My pediadontist told me it is not a problem until 3 or 4 yrs old. That is when the jaw line begins to get strong and form maturely. My daughter still sucks her thumb and she is 3. I have explained she is a big girl and big girls dont suck thier thumb. Now she only does it under extreme exhaustion.