Thumb Sucking - Eureka, CA

I have the same thing going on in my house. My daughter is 5 and in kindergarten. She sucks her thumb also. I have been worried sick about it for so long. Her dentist, Dr. Hart mentioned that her teeth are good & not molded much. That when her teeth fall out that she probably will quit sucking that thumb of hers. I really wouldn't worry to much about it right now. He will stop in time.

I have a 5 yr old who still sucks her thumb, and an 11 yr old who bites her fingernails. Ive tried the nail bite stop stuff but you have to be on it like every two hours all day long. I just simply cant remember that. Someone told me the dentist can give you a device to put into the mouth at night to keep them from sucking.

I also have a thunb sucker- she is now 3 years. At her 2 year old check up, her pediatricain told me that it was too late to stop the sucking- her mouth and teeth were already molded to her thumb. I suggest you start saving for future orthodontics. I plan to start when she turns 5. :)

Hi S.,
My 4.5 year old son sucked a pacifier until he was nearly 4. Everyone bitched at me about it, told me I should force him to quit, someone even said I was trying to stop him growing up because I let him do it. What nonsense!
I believe that the bigger deal you make of things, the bigger deal they become. I knew he would quit when he felt ready and just before his forth birthday, he put down the binky and never wanted it again.
Now a binky is a lot easier to give up than a thumb - after all, the thumb is always there - permanently attached! Also, because the thumb has a hard bone inside it, it is much worse for the teeth then a soft pacifier. However, when I took my son to a pediatric orthodontist when he was 2, I was told not to worry. Apparently, the jaw remain fluid until about the age of 11 and so the teeth are able to move and adjust their position, no problem. This was certainly true of my son who was getting a little goofy by the end of the binky time, but now, within just a few months, his teeth a perfectly straight.
So don't worry and think of it this way - sucking is a vital stimulant for brain growth and development - more sucking = more brains! That's gotta be good, right!
G.

I am going through the same thing except my son is nearly 4 1/2 years old. I have been reading online many different schools of thought and approaches to this issue. If you google "stop thumb sucking" there are many ideas for your age child. I am going a little harder approach because my child is much older....I am putting tatoo bandaids on his thumb so it will remind him not to put his thumb in his mouth. That might be a little aggressive for a 22 month old, however. So I recommend going online for some tips by googling like I suggested. Good luck...

Hi S.,

I had the same problem with my daughter last summer. Her old daycare provider happened to have a Thumbguard there and let us borrow it until she no longer needed it. It worked in a week and a half! It is the best thing ever. What is it is, a plastic shield that fits right over the thumb, and is connected to a wrist bracelet that is strapped on to the wrist. Hard to explain, but you can visit the website, or google thumbguard. It's around $80 to buy, but a good investment in my opinion. What it's meant to do is take away the sucking sensation for the child, because they do not want to suck on the plastic part of this guard. They are not able to take it off, because it's strapped on tight with plastic bracelets (comes with it). Let me know if you need any more info on this.. good luck! Where are you located? I am in the Antelope, CA area.

Good Morning, S.!

First off, there is another mom wanting similar "thumb sucking" advie this morning, so you may want to read her responses, as well as yours.

Your daughter seems so young to worry about letting go of her thumb, although the "teeth thing" is probably your biggest concern. I was worried about this with my youngest son and his pacifier. He loved that pacifier for a long time, and I saw it affecting his teeth. I eventually put his "needs" over his teeth, knowing that the baby teeth would fall out and we would have another chance...maybe. His teeth haven't fallen out yet, but they will soon enough, he's 5. I'm not sure I would worry about your daughter until she's older. She's still pretty young, and her age seems normal to still suck her thumb. But she is also at an age where you can "minimize" the sucking, by gently asking her to go to her room when she needs to suck her thumb because it means she's tired and needs to lay down. She'll eventually get too "busy" to want to go to her room, and this will begin to minimize her thumb sucking. She's still very young for this, but it will be a good start, I think. There are going to be those times in the car, family trips, etc...that you will have to bend the rules. But when you're at home you can control the issue more.

The thing I wouldn't do, is to make her feel so aware of her thumb-sucking that she becomes insecure about it. Your home is the only place in the world she can be totally herself, and you don't want to "shame" the issue, so she begins to hide it at home. If you can avoid doing that, minimize the sucking, AND still have a confident little girl...then you would've performed a mini miracle :o)

Good Luck

:o) N.

Try not to make an issue of it yet. That's pretty young to expect her to stop. What worked with our son was, one of the people at his pediatric dental office made him a deal about quitting by his 4th birthday, and that worked.

And I highly recommend starting her with a good pediatric dentist, either around 3-4 or earlier if issues come up. My son actually enjoys going to the dentist!! This amazes and pleases me since I still dread going myself, even though my dentist is wonderful. These folks have a great practice:
Wampler, Katsura, Miyahara, Khalil, Khosrovani & Nakazato, with offices on Colby St. in Berkeley ###-###-####), Ensenada St. in Berkeley ###-###-####) and Davis Rd. in Orinda ###-###-####). My son sees Nakazato on Ensenada, but we know other families who see others in the practice and they all love the group.

my daughter is now 15 yr old. she sucked her thumb till she was 7 yrs old. she only stopped when the dentist finally told her she was hurting her teeth. we tried everything to get her to stop before then. she only stopped when she was ready. when she was really young we stopped her from sucking in public. eventually she only sucked at night. today she is just fine, we did have to have braces etc. letting her suck her thumb till she was 7 did not impact her life at all...only braces. I know this probably doesn't help, but at least you can see that eventually they will stop.