How old were your kids before they stopped sucking their thumbs? Did they stop on their own or did you intervene?
One of mine was a thumb sucker. He was 7 when he stopped. By then, it had created a gap in his front teeth. A speech therapist recommended that (at home) he wear a tube sock over his hand to help him break his automatic habit. He wanted to stop too, but hadn't been able. The sock worked within a couple of days. Happily, his teeth went back to straight on their own.
My daughter was fourteen and never a problem with crooked teeth. The way I see it is sucking your thumb is a comfort and they are able to comfort themselves, what a beautiful thing.
My almost 29 year old still sucks her thumb.....
9 yo only in bed. Glad to hear I'm not the only one with a thumb sucker!
about three-four ish.
he is six now and giggles when i remind him he used to...he thinks it's crazy lol. but he still has his blankie ;)
we didn't ever make a big deal of it - on the contrary, he started at just a few weeks old and slept through the night after that - i was thrilled!
lots of us in our family sucked our thumbs. almost all of us have great teeth. so zero issues here. i don't buy into the dentist stuff.....and certainly not worth the trauma and shame that trying to force them to give it up could cause. they give it up when they're ready. if they need comforting, let them be comforted.
My kids are 8 (in 2 weeks) and 5. They both still suck their thumbs. They don't do it in public. Usually I see it when they are sleeping at night when I check on them.
My daughter was 9. Never sucked it in public or school. Only home and usually when tired. Dentist told her she had to stop and she did. Stopped cold turkey.
We intervened when our son was 5. Our dentist said that it was starting to affect his palette. By that time though, he was only using it to fall asleep, so it took several nights of reminding him to take his thumb out and he topped needing it to go to sleep. I make it sound easy but it wasn't. It was still a comfort thing and it was hard for him to give it up.
My 5 yr old asked my husband for an ipad if she stops sucking her thumb. He said yes. For the most part she has stopped. I have caught her when she is real tired, I just remind her and she stops.
We had to intervene when my son was 4. The damage he was doing to his pallet was becoming a problem. My BIL is our dentist and said we needed to nip it in the bud. Fortunately, our son was only doing it when he was tired or upset, so by them time he wasn't doing it all the time like he did when he was a baby. We bought a soft thumb guard and bribed our child. It took about two months to break the habit while he was awake and probably another month or two before he stopped doing it in his sleep. It was tough, but for the best.
I sucked on 2 fingers until I was 24. When I was younger my parents tried everything they could to get me to stop, but I wouldn't or couldn't. Actually the only reason I did stop was because I had my wisdom teeth pulled and I did not want to get dry socket. However as I got older it didn't happen as much. When I quit I was only doing it at night to fall aslee vs all day when I was younger. I hope this helps a little.
I took the bottle away from my daughter too early and she found her fingers. She still to this day, when she's over tired or stressed, will suck those fingers in her sleep. So it doesn't end. No matter what you do the finger/thumb is part of her body and she'll always have access to it.
I was adamant when we took in some of our grand kids that I would not take their bottles too soon and if they needed a pacifier they would get it until they didn't need it anymore.
They stopped on their own and didn't ever suck their fingers or thumbs.
