Thumb Sucking - Lawndale,CA

My 5 year old son recently stopped sucking his thumb! I was constantly nagging him to take his thumb out of his mouth. His dentist explained to him why he had to stop sucking his thumb. But he continued to suck his thumb -- especially while sleeping. Finally, I bought a product called Mavala Stop. I ordered mine through Amazon. (Read the reviews. You will learn a lot.) It is nail polish that tastes bad and therefore acts as a reminder for my son to stop sucking his thumb. A tiny dab on each thumb nail every few days was all it took.

Every once in a while, my son backslides and starts sucking his thumb again. He actually asks me to put the "dots" on his thumbnails to remind him not to suck his thumb. My sons teeth are pretty well aligned again. I wish I would have tried this method sooner. Good luck! It's a very hard habit to break.

Talking doesn't work for all kids. We tried to stop our daughter from sucking her thumb at the age of 4, then 5, then 6, yes...then 7. She is a month away from turning 8 and we have worked on this all through the year. I know she thumb sucks in the car, at night, after school, in bed, and on the couch while watching TV. Sometimes I make a general announcement, "There is no thumb sucking" and she stops, but only to start again when I turn my back.

I usually tell her I already asked nicely, now put socks on. She wears socks on her hands and then she doesn't do it. If she wears gloves she will suck her thumb through the glove. I have caught her sucking her thumb in the car and told her to put a sock on her hand and her reply is, "I don't have one" and my response to that is, "Use the one on your foot".

She has practically stopped. I may catch her sucking her thumb every couple of days when she is tired.

You can try talking to him, but I will assume you already have. Try the socks or they have devices you can purchase online. They say it takes 2 weeks to break or make a habit.

I tried the glove, socks, nailpolish, nothing worked. Finally, and this is mean, I had to take her special blanket away. She only sucked her thumb when she had it. (she was 5) She stopped pretty quickly, maybe a week or two, and we gave her the blanket back. She never sucked her thumb again. She still has the blanket and she's 17!

Nothing worked for my sister or my SD.
Just let it be.
As you say, he's not even 5 yet & every child is different. I guarantee you
he won't be going to high school sucking his thumb.
They just outgrow it. It happens to be HIS soothing outlet.
Each child has their own "thing".
Let him be & he will out grow in time when it's the right time for him.

Does he want to stop sucking his thumb? That is the single most important factor. If he doesn't want to stop for his own reasons, then anything you try will be like banging your head on a wall for fun.

If he does want to stop, then try a loose tube sock over his hand at home. It will remind him when his automatic reflex is to pop his thumb in.

My daughter sucked it until she was nine. However, never sucked it at school. Dentist told her to stop. She did. That day.

He will stop when he is ready. Don't worry about it now.

lol, my 6 AND 8 year old still suck their thumbs. There really isn't anything you can do to stop them. Don't worry, they will grow out of it. They won't be married and still sucking their thumb

Don't worry just let him be ...........he will figure it out when it's time for him to stop. As my son said when I asked him why he stopped sucking his two middle fingers. "I don't need it any more", and that was when he was 6. Thumb and finger sucking is a way for a child to self soothe. I can guarantee he will NOT graduate from High School still sucking his thumb. Don't use anything to get him to stop, it is EXTREMELY frustrating for the child. Look at it this way..........he's NOT hurting anyone and it makes him feel good AND he's 5. Relax he will stop on his own.

When I was little I wore a glove to bed to stop the thumb sucking. It worked for me. My sister helped her daughter to stop by buying a really soft (maybe silk?) pillowcase and she slept with her hands under the pillow. The nice fabric helped her. She also had an incentive attached... If she went a certain time (I don't know how long) without sucking her thumb, she could get her ears pierced. Worked like a charm!

Thumbguards - they are rubber thumb shields that prevent a good seal (the key to good thumb sucking). They were a little pricey, but we tried everything and couldn't get our daughter to stop (she was 11! - but then again, I stopped at 7 and was the only one in my family that didn't need braces, and my sister-in-law sucked her thumb until 13. So my daughter definitely comes by it honestly!) Talk, duct tape, yucky nail polish, socks on the hands, punishment, positive encouragement, rewards - she outsmarted everything because despite all our explanations, she just didn't want to stop and didn't even realize she was doing it in her sleep. Even this product took longer than recommended, but it did, finally, work.

http://tguard.com/products/thumbguard/

My daughter sucked her thumb till 5 1/2. We tried gloves, nail polish, bad tasting liquids, and a hard thumb guard - nothing worked. We finally tried a soft thumb guard and it worked great. She wore it 24 hours a day for 6 weeks (took it off to swim & bathe). It's expensive, but it works. She was in daycare at the time and the ladies there said it was the only guard they had ever seen work.

http://www.yourhandaid.com/

Try giving him something else to suck and chew. Some kids need oral stimulation to remain focused and calm. There are specialzed items made for the mouth but any soft object will work.

Since he is five, you can probably try to talk to him about it. How it is bad for your teeth, etc. or that some kids that aren't so nice may say mean stuff to him about it. Otherwise, kids eventually will make fun of him and then he will stop for sure.