Any Tips on Giving up Thumb Sucking?

I know people who thumbsucked for a while (myself included, to age seven) and some who've been pushed to stop. I do not believe in forcing it!

I was only doing it at night, with my blankie. When I was seven and starting braces (not BECAUSE of the thumb, because my mouth is ludicrously small), my mom told me gently that I was big and we could put the blankie in my drawer, and if I needed it, I could get it. I stopped then, easily, and it's a good memory, actually.

I know another child who has been pushed since the beginning to quit--sprays, guards, nagging, rewards, everything. Now twelve, he still does it, although he hides it quite well. And he does it more when he's been criticized! So the more the whole family nags him, the more he does it.

My daughter never even remotely wanted to do it, but my son was born doing it. He is almost three and still does it--at night or when he's really tired. He does NOT do it if he has anything better to do--playing, talking, singing, eating. So I plan to just focus on him growing up to have lots of fun interests and activities and eventually he will stop.

I was a thumb sucker and it did not ruin my teeth. It is safer than giving a baby a pacifier to use. Your thumb is natural and doesn't do no where near the harm a pacifier stuck in a babies mouth does at any age. My Mom didn't try to break me from sucking my thumb. She just basically taught me that it's not correct to do it in front of others and if I wanted to suck my thumb I had to go to bed. Of course I didn't want to stay in bed when I had all my brothers playing. I only sucked mine to go to sleep she said. Maybe just a few minutes. Once sleeping my thumb came out. My sister in law stopped her son from sucking his thumb. After that he was always chewing on something when he went to bed. His toes, blanket, pillow, etc...She will out grow the thumb sucking.

Let her give it up on her own. Pushing it is only going to make it worse. It's not like a pacifier you can get rid of! There are several schools of thought on whether it damages tooth formation, and several doctors and dentists told my mom it would -and a few said it wouldn't. I sucked my thumb FAR past age 5 purely as a comfort mechanism (only at bedtime and in private) and I wish I had never stopped! I smoked for 20 years because it was the only thing that ever came close to that soothing feeling for me. My teeth were never harmed by the thumb sucking! My teeth have always been just fine.

The advice from our pediatrician was to let them naturally give it up on their own. Most kids stop by age 5 on their own due to social pressures.

There's conflicting research (from credible sources) on whether or not thumb sucking really has an impact on their permanent teeth - unless they suck after they've begun to lose their teeth.

In our son's case (he just turned 4), it saved his teeth from a bad fall when he was 2 by helping push them back into place. Over the past 2 years, the amount of thumb sucking has naturally decreased dramatically as he's gotten older and has learned to soothe in other ways.

It's their soothing mechanism, so unless you can replace it with something else, almost all techniques to stop it are futile. You can't take a thumb away like you can a pacifier, so it makes it much more difficult.

I would recommend going to your own dentist since all kids are different. My son is 2 and I just recently took him to the dentist. The dentist noticed that there is damage already to his mouth shape causing his teeth to begin to buck out (I can see this when I look at my son's profile). The dentist recommended a stuff you put on their thumb and fingers (since they tend to start sucking their fingers when the thumb is taken away) that tastes bitter to keep them from doing it. Don't get me wrong I think that my son's thumb sucking is adorable and sweet, but I also don't want to spend thousands of dollars for braces especially since they aren't really covered by insurance. If there is damage there is not a whole lot you can do until it's time for braces as far as reversing damage. Braces are expensive so I would want to be sure that the thumb sucking isn't going to lead to an expensive result later. Good luck.

Our dentist wants our 3-year-old to stop. He already has a HUGE over bite and his lower teeth are pushed back:( His smile is messed up and he has a hard time biting down on food because his teeth aren't anywhere near coming together. Yes, there is conflicting research on whether it affects permanent teeth, but they can affect their upper pallet because of the pressure of the thumb and the only way to fix that is with orthdontic treatment :( The dentist said he hasn't raised his pallet too much yet, but that he should stop sucking his thumb in 6-12 months before he does much damage.
I haven't decided what to do yet. We're trying to just remind him and reward him. Next we'll try the bitter sprays, then maybe I'll get a pair of gloves or mittens and cut off everything but the thumb. Next there are things you can buy that strap on and last the dentist can put a plate in across the roof of the mouth the has two little spikes that poke the thumb when they put it in - but our dentist said he's never had to do that. Kids have always stopped on their own before needing one.

My son sucked until 5 1/2. He was like your daughter in that he only did it when tired/bored (watching TV, in the car, going to sleep). The dentist never made a big deal, saying he would probably stop by kindergarten. We got him to stop the summer before kindergarten by telling him it had to happen. It was really much less painful than I expected. I sat with him during all the critical moments and made sure his thumb wasn't in his mouth. It really only took about 2 days for him to quit. I had one of those thumb guards on order but my son never really had to use it. I think when they are a little older, you can reason with them better and they probably don't need it as much anyway. My son, by the way, is in braces now (he's 9) and has an overbite, but the front two teeth are kind of pushed in which makes me think the sucking really didn't affect his teeth too much (or the two front teeth would be out more).

Two of my kids were thumb suckers. At about 3-4 I just started reminding them to keep it out of their mouth. If they fell asleep with it there, I pulled it out. That was all I did, I never made a big thing of it. My son finally stopped at around 5 and my 6 year old daughter still has to be reminded every once in awhile. And both of them have nothing wrong with their teeth btw. My dentist told me that it only does damage if the thumb is in there 24/7. That's what it takes for braces to do anything. And genetics generally win in the end regardless. I had braces and after a few years of not wearing a retainer because of headaches, my teeth shifted almost back to original position. I would have had to have the retainer in every night for the rest of my life to keep that from happening.

Childern suck thumbsBECAUSE their cranial bones are out of place.
Period.
Check with the Internnational Chiropractic Pediatric Assn and get a trained doctor to fix that, and the thumb sucking will stop.
If you don't do that 1st then you will be trying to get your child to quit doing something that she is doing to try and fix her"cranial faults"- and you will turn her into a sneak- she has to do it,and now she will do it when you cannot see it. And the battle is on-
if you don't go to a cranial chiropractor- then just let her suck- because braces are cheaper than what you will do to your relationship with your child by FORCING her to stop something that she is doing for her survival.
best, k

I was a thumb sucker, as well as my siblings, though not 24/7. I remember my mom doing the thumb guard, bitter stuff on the thumb, etc. with me. She finally let it alone by saying that when I lost my first tooth, that I needed to stop sucking my thumb, and lo and behold, when I lost my first tooth, I stopped! That same thing occurred for my younger siblings, though some of them did stop before they lost a tooth.

I told my son that it was time to stop sucking his thumb now that he is a big boy. He too only sucked at night and tired times. We tried just reminding him not to do it and that didn't work because it was a habit more than a soothing thing. Finally, we put a bandaid on his finger which helped him remember when he put his thumb in his mouth. He did fine. It took a couple weeks but it worked without tears or upset.

Cranial Sacral therapy! Make sure they are from the Upledger Institute.