My daughter will be 4 on march 21st and she still sucks her thumb. Ive tried everything, even the stuff that you putt on it to make it taste bad (she liked it). If she isnt eating or drinking, the thumb is in her mouth. I need advice on how to get her to stop...
Don't force her to stop. I sucked my thumb for years and it never had any ill effects on me, my teeth, my speech, etc. It's a comfort and if she's forced to stop, it can have implications in other ways like eating for comfort, someday smoking, -that sort of thing. Age will catch up to her with it and she'll stop on her own. By next year in kindergarten, she'll learn she doesn't want anyone to know she does it, and it will gradually decline.
I am interested in this question too...it has become a debate with my husband. Our daughter is almost 3.5 and is exactly the same way. I'm going to take her to the dentist soon so I'm hoping that maybe hearing it from the dentist might help, but I feel like it's a lost cause. From all the thumb suckers I've known, nothing makes them stop until they're just ready, and we're probably ready long before they are! I knew a few people who told me they started doing it less when they got to school and their friends made fun of them. As a mother I certainly don't want my kid to be teased, but honestly, I don't know if anything else will work!
We are working on our 5 YO. Most often she thumb sucks when she is relaxing or tired.
We have showed her the thumb guard, which she frowned on and I took her to Walgreens and put a thumb brace on her, but it was too big. She hated that her thumb would be braced straight and I felt bad too. Then her little thumb popped right out of the brace and she smiled!
So for now, we bough gloves, one pair has the fingertips open so she can still function, but I have caught her with her fingers in her mouth still. So our best option has been socks on her hands when she is going to sleep or on the couch.
We also checked out the book Thumb Love by Elise Primavera at the library. It is a 12 step book.
In my opinion, thumb sucking is more emotional than anything. It is a way to comfort one's self. Ask your child why she sucks her thumb or when? Or just observe her to see why and when she finds the need to suck her thumb. When our oldest use to suck her thumb I noticed she did it after getting home from school; I asked her teacher what was going on and she stated one of the girls made fun of her for being different (biracial) and our daughter would cry and suck her thumb. So after talking with her and ensuring her of things; comforting her she talked about it as best as a 4 yr old could at the time and she stopped sucking her thumb. All I can say is talk to your daughter, comfort her where she needs it and the thumb sucking will stop shortly.
as a former thumb sucker who gave it up once i got to school - just keep in mind this is her comfort mechanism. it kinda makes me sad reading all these mothers who have tried so hard to guilt/pressure/force their children to give that up. what do you do when the big bad world gets to you and you need some comfort? get a hug from your husband? call your mom or best friend on the phone? how would you feel about someone taking that away? imagine how much more overwhelming things must seem at 4!
it's very possible that the pressure she feels from you to give it up is causing her anxiety, which makes her need to do it more. she might be feeling very conflicted, even perhaps like a failure, right now.
Ahhh, this is where you have to start getting creative.
1 friend actually told her 3yr that it was making him sick. He stopped sucking that day.
My SIL actually tied it to punishment. If she wanted to suck her thumb, she had to do it in her room. She's a social butterfly, so being cooped up in her room was torture for her. Took a couple of days, but it killed the behavior.
I told my daughter it was dirty and germy -- it was... we'd just finished playing at the playground and I didn't have a wipe...
She never sucked her thumb again.
The little girl across the street is 8... she still sucks her fingers... I'm not sure if her mom ever tried to get her to stop or not.
YMMV
LBC
First take her to the dentist. Thumb sucking, if they are vigourous suckers who do it frequently, can change the shape of the mouth. Let the dentist guide you on when to stop.
Once you get to the point of stopping give her an incentive, some type of reward that she will want to work for. If she doesn't want to quit she won't, it's that simple. Once you get her on board, and that might take time and creativity, I highly recommend a product called handaid; http://www.yourhandaid.com/
My dd sucked her thumb from infancy until the summer before kindergarten, however she only sucked it when she was tired. She finally agreed she wanted to quit before she started k, dentist helped a bunch with this, but she didn't know how to stop. I did a bunch of on-line research and settled on the handaid. It's not cheap, but she wore it 24/7 (except to swim & bathe) for 6 weeks and when we took it off she no longer sucked her thumb. We were expecting all sorts of drama, but it ended up being very anticlimactic - she wore the handaid and couldn't suck the thumb, end of story.
Have you taken her to a dentist? They have a lot of helpful tips and suggestions and sometimes hearing she needs to stop and an incentive from someone else can do the trick. Just a thought!
My sister sucked her thumb til she was 10. The biggest concern was bad teeth after a while. My mom tried everything, too. I think finally she got her to stop by bribing her with nail polish if she let her thumbnail (and the other fingernails) grow. You might make a chart and give her a goal. At the end of 2 weeks, she gets a smaller reward and at the end of 4 a bigger one. I've heard 2 weeks to make a habit, two weeks to break a habit.
I was a thumb sucker until I was 7 years old. My mom tried everything to get me to stop, even the terrible tasting stuff and I would just lick it off. I stopped when I was ready. I have no dental, speech or other problems as a result. I agree with the others that say just let her stop when she is ready.
i feel your pain . my daughter was 8. my dd got braces and was still sucking. they put an appliance in the roof of her mouth that she couldn't take out. the idea is to break the suction. it worked. you can go to your dentist and they can do it or tell you where to go. after she stopped she was afraid she would do it in her sleep so we got some gloves and she wore one on the hand she sucked and that worked good. after a while she wasn't worried about it any more so she stopped. good luck, R.
