My 3 year old just had her first dentist appointment and it went great. The only concern was she sucks her thumb and it is affecting the alignmnet of her teeth. She lives with her thumb in her mouth. Any suggestions on how to ween her off of her thumb?? Ive also heard that some kids who stop sucking hteir thumb switch to sucking other fingers. how do i avoid that?
I had another mother tell me about Mavala Stop. It is a polish that my dentist office sells to get children to stop sucking their thumbs and biting their nails. I needed it for nail biting and it worked very quickly.
Good luck!
This can be a cranial bone alignment situation- sucking on the thumb is the body's attempt to realign the cranial bones- in fact one of the adjustments to correct this includes having the patient actual have their thumb in their mouth during the adjustment.
This is important data to have so that you are not just trying to stop this behaviour w/o dealing w/ the reason it is being done.
Check out docmccullen.com for more information
Kia
My 7 year old still sucks her thumb. My 4 year old does not. I tried painting her nails, thumb guards, etc. nothing works. She will have to outgrow it or have her friends make fun of her before she stops. It doesn't seem to phase her. I'm done worrying about it. I'm sure I'll have bigger problems when she's a teenager.
Like one of the other moms already said on here, my son's dentist and doctor didn't think the thumb sucking was any big deal. They kept saying, he will stop when he gets more self-conscious about it. We ordered the thumb guard from one of those baby/kid magazines when my son was 5 1/2. While it was on it's way, I decided to sit next to my son during all the critical moments (watching TV, reading in bed at night) and prevent him from doing it. Within 2 days he was completely over it. We never really had to use the thumb guard, but he thought it was kind of cool and insisted I put it on him at night just in case. Maybe 3 is a little young to wean them off the thumb. I'm sure every kid is different. Personally, I don't think it's a big issue unless they are walking around all the time sucking.
I sucked my fingers until I was almost 12. My mother tried everything from nail polish, hot sauce, putting a mitten on my hand at all times and nothing worked. When I had braces put on at 11, the orthodontist had to put a cage type thing in the top of my pallette so that I didnt have the room to place my fingers. After wearing that for 3 years, I assure you I didnt do it again. My now 7 year old son sucks the exact same fingers I did and has since birth. As he got older I became more concerned as I didnt want him to have to go through what I did. It was quite painful. The doctor told me there is nothing I can do about it and that he will eventually grow out of it, or I would have to take the same procedure that was taken with me. I wish there was some way that I could help, but if you hear anything more...let me know too! Thx
Have you tried painting her fingernails?
We had the same problem and ended up buying a thumbguard by medetal on-line. They have a 30 day money back guarantee it worked for my pre-schooler as well as for a 2nd grader at our school that we recommended it to.
A.
A.,
Just wondering a bit about your dentist... I have a 6-year old thumb sucker. EVERY dentist we've ever talked to, and everything we've read from what's considered 'latest' findings shows that thumbsucking cannot affect tooth alignment at this young of an age. The only 'valid' concern is moving the palate some. Our dentist, who's considered tops in Sarasota, actually LAUGHED when we brought it up and said that was basically old wives' tale. As far as the thumbsucking, everything I've read (and asking other parents, doctors, etc.) says that something like 90% of kids give up completely by age 7 and that too many attempts to stop it will actually increase the behavior. I've heard about gloves on the hands, the 'icky' paint for the fingernail (which my son actually tried and turned out he LOVED the peppery taste... oops!), work temporarily but don't stop the behavior or the need for the behavior.
I'd suggest a second opinion on the teeth issue though. Our son is a 'nighttime only' thumb sucker now and has gradually weaned himself off naturally over the last 2 years. He was CONSTANT from about 5 months until age 5 and no teeth damage, etc.
Hope that allays your worries a bit. Good luck!
What do you do about it? Nothing!! There is no way to stop it and we all turned out fine teeth wise right....So you get her braces when her adult teeth come in which you would probably have to do anyway...Not many of us have naturally straight teeth...My 3 yr. old son sucks his too...what ya gonna do...More important things to worry about I'm sure...Take care...
A., My suggestion is to let her suck her thumb. My girls both sucked their thumbs, its a great comfort to the kids who need to do it. And they should have comfort for as long as they need it. My girls are now in their 30's and have kids of their own and their teeth are just fine and have been all along. They stopped sucking their thumbs when they didn't need to do it anymore.
I sucked my thumb until I was seven--then my mom had a nice talk with me about being a big girl. We put away my blankie and she said I could get it out again if I needed it, but I never did. My brother apparently sucked his thumb until he was ten, but I didn't know because it was just at night. We both stopped with no problem.
My nephew, on the other hand, has been hounded by his parents and grandparents for YEARS to stop, and (he's now ten) he's just gotten really good at hiding when he's doing it. You can tell, though--whenever he gets criticized, he does still suck his thumb.
My eighteen month old currently sucks his thumb and I will not let anyone bug him about it. When he gets verbal, we'll talk about not doing it when we're out (kind of gross and rude), but I have a feeling it will fade away on its own.
I think the best way to handle it is largely to ignore it. Maybe give your daughter fun things to do that require both hands, but don't worry. She'll finish when she's ready.
BTW, I did have braces, but it's because my mouth is so very small that I can barely take adult xrays even now--my teeth just didn't fit. No one ever said it was the thumbsucking.
