Thumb Sucking - Portland,OR

This may sound strange, but what worked for us was putting socks on his hands. My son was a major thumb sucker. To break the day habit we simply told him that if he sucked his thumb we would put socks on his hands. When we would catch him the socks went on. He hated having socks on his hands and stopped day sucking in about a week. He slept with socks on his hands for 4 or 5 nights to break the habit for night time.

Hi E.,

I met a pediatric dentist at a networking event I attended, (I'm a parent coach), and we talked about thumb sucking. I encourage parent so teach the child to use an alternative lovie when they start sucking their thumb and she has a "nail polish" that takes the appeal out of the action without the burning of peppers.

The dentist is Michelle Stafford of World of Smiles and her web address is: www.visitworldofsmiles.com

Call her office and see what she has.

I do strongly suggest also using a different lovey when he starts sucking his thumb. It is a comfort technique, so he just needs something else to snuggle.

R. Magby

I was a serious thumb sucker and my parents tried everything to get me to stop - including putting all the nasty stuff on my thumb but I would just deal with it until it was all sucked off and then go on my way (short term loss, long term gain!) This probably isn't what you want to hear but I had to get an orthodontic thing put in my mouth at like age 8 or something that made me unable to suck because I was messing up my teeth with my sucking. I hope you find something else that works but know that he will not be an adult and still sucking his thumb no matter what so as a former sucker I say be patient with him - habits are hard to break. Good luck!

I think the question to ask yourself is simply *who* is motivated for him to end the thumbsucking, you or him? If it's just you, chances are it's going to take a lot longer. If it's him, then this might go more smoothly. My guess, just from what I've seen in my work with kids, is that he'll likely make it a bedtime/hometime habit when he gets a sense that his peers don't find it cool. Sometimes this is more motivating than any reward/punishment /aversion sort of thing initiated by parents.

I also understand that there's a hygiene issue here too. Kids who suck their thumbs or bite their nails are constantly putting their hands in their mouths and need direction for hand-washing. At my preschool, I ask children who are putting their hands or toys into their mouths to wash their hands every time I see it. I explain it as a germ concern and invite them to help keep themselves and their friends healthy, and it's treated just as if they were picking their nose or had another need for clean hands, without judgment and very matter-of-fact.

For what it's worth, my brother had a similar habit (sniffing the labels on his toys) that was a comfort for him. He gave it up on his own when he was seven. We'd had some family drama (divorce, two moves in less than a year) and his labels were the best thing I think he had going. I think he eventually got to the point where he just didn't feel it was working for him. We had a very stressful upbringing and I, too, have some issues with biting my nails, and none of my parents' shaming or aversion seems to have sunk in. Sigh. I know they cared about it very much, but I suppose I wanted them to care about *me* more than what other people thought. So you may want to consider letting your son work through this on his own. And I add this laughingly, but you probably really want to avoid having a forty-year-old adult child who sucks their thumbs! Let him work it out...

I had a thumb suker too. We tried everything, including putting a band aid on it so he wouldn't put it in his mouth. He switched to the other thumb. I talked with the dentist and he said he didn't see any harm coming to his teeth and to see if peer pressure helped. So we would ask him to take it out but not push. Kindergarten came and nothing. Not even peer pressure. I thought great, he will graduate with his thumb in his mouth and then 1/2 through kindergarten, he came to us and said I want to stop sucking my thumb. Will you draw me a hand with a big red X on the thumb to help me remember? We traced his hand and I cut red strips of paper to make an X. We placed these all over the house and even had them on his desk at school. With in the month he had totally stopped. You may just have to wait for your little one to be ready. good luck

We tried many things, including the hot sauce, and could not find a way to break our daughter. Our doctor said that with peer pressure at some point will quit. It took til 3rd grade for her to stop and amazingly her teeth are the best of the 3.

Glad you are staying compassionate in your approach. Is there any guidance from the attachment parenting field, such as Dr. Sears? Also I'd just try to remember that he is doing it for a reason, and try to address the reason by providing some other form of comfort or relaxation. Give him some age appropriate yoga, perhaps, try massage at night to help him unwind. That is probably what the sucking does; releases calming/soothing hormones for him.

best wishes, I hope you find something that works. Also it might help to remember that this might be gradual; it might ease off by becoming less frequent over a month or two before it stops. My sister was horrified that her daughter sucked her thumb and fought it until she was eight with everything she could think of. I think it was a lot of family pressure that finally had her stop at age 8, but it was very painful for my neice to get all that shaming from her family.

My friend did a very good technique, that wasn't mean and seemed to curb the day time thumb sucking for her son.

Her son was really into baseball cards. Every week, he got a new pack. If he was caught sucking his thumb, he had to give one card back to his mom. Since he loved baseball cards so much, it was so hard for him to give one back. He would agonize over which one to give back. Anyhow, it took awhile because it was so instinctive for him to just pop his thumb in his mouth, but it eventually stuck.

You could always give him a roll of quarters and do the same thing. If he lost money out of the roll, he would have to put all the money in his bank, but if he kept the whole roll, you could take him to buy something special.

I though that technique was really good and wasn't too cruel.

I think the only way you can break a child of this habit is if they want to stop it also! Otherwise, you're fighting a losing battle!

That said, if you do get the child on-board, I think hot sauce is mean too (and what if he rubs his eye afterwards--Yikes!).

I broke my daughter's habit right before she turned 5. She was tired of being called "cry-baby" at preschool, and the thumb sucking wasn't helping any,

We rewarded the heck out of her that first month! We set up a reward chart. She got fifty cents for each day she didn't suck, a present at the end of each week not sucking, and a really big present at the end of the month. We did a second month as well, but dropped the fifty cents/day part.

In addition, because putting the thumb in the mouth is something you do without even thinking about it, we taped her thumb to remind her if she forgot. This method worked like a charm. I think she was pretty much done sucking by the first day! She loved her reward chart and all the cool things she got for stopping!

Don't make it a power struggle, because you won't win!

Good luck!
C.
www.littlebitquirky.blogspot.com

Bandaids worked for my 3 yr old son.

Bandaids work and prevents them from sucking because it is a rough texture. Good luck

You should get Malva Stop, it is a clear nail polish that you use for stopping thumb sucking and nail biting. It tastes very very bitter and the taste stays in your mouth for a while. I used it for my 2.5 yr old and it worked wonders. She stopped within 2 days. She would suck her thumb all the time especially at night. We tried hot sauce too and wrapping up her thumb but with no effect. I bought it on amazon.com for about $15 ( with s/h), I believe (it is about the size of a regular nail polish bottle) Kinda of spendy but really worth it. I recommended it to a friend who's toddler had the same problem and it worked for her too.

One Step Ahead makes a plastic thumb guard that prevents thumb sucking - I am not sure how much it gets in the way of doing other things, but I do have one friend who used it for her son.

Every time you catch him with his thumb in his mouth make him go wash his hands.
We had a similar issue and my son got tired of washing his hands and eventually quit the bad habit.
Don't get me wrong, he still has to wash before meals, after being outside, etc.