Finger Sucking Habit

My son (who is now 29) sucked his thumb until he was 4 years old and I had to barter with him to stop before he was 4 and he did. He has no buck teeth and his thumbs are fine. I think for some kids it just happens. I use to put stuff on his thumb and he was smart and would just wipe it off on his clothes. He even use to hold both his thumbs up for me to put it on (it was kinda cute at the time :)), but he still wiped it off.

My niece use to suck her middle fingers and she is now 26 and is fine - no buck teeth or bad fingers.

They do grow out of it. Try and talk to him and set a date for him to stop since he is getting to be a big boy etc.

Hope this helps some............R.

Hi S.,

My son was a big thumb sucker and at age 4 he wouldn't be seen without it in his mouth. I tried everything too before going to a non-toxic (obviously) product called Marvala Stop. It's a liquid that you brush on the fingernail. It is designed for thumb and finger suckers as well as nial biting. It dries in one minute and lasts for 3 days (even after hand washing). Within 1/2 day, my son never sucked his thumb again. It is a very bitter taste that will turn your son off completely. I tried to avoid this route because I thought it was a bit cruel, but it was extremely effective and my son is not traumatized by it!
I found it online so you can just Google "Marvala Stop" and you should find it, if you choose to try it.

Two years old is pretty young to be too worried about it. I let my son suck his thumb without worry until he turned 4 and I realized he wasn't going to give this habit up, and he was too old to carry around a blankie. For him, it wasn't a security thing, or soothing thing anymore, it was just a bad habit.

Good luck,
M.

Well...I sucked my thumb until I was about 7 years old. The way I stopped was through the encouragement of my step-mom. She said to me one morning, "I am so proud of you because I went into your room last night and you weren't sucking your thumb. I can tell you are really trying." I wasn't trying at all but the encouragement felt so good I decided to try to stop.

I can tell you what didn't work for me:
Telling me I was a baby made me sad and then I wanted to go and suck my thumb.
Tobasco sauce didn't work. It was spicy at first but after sucking it all off I wanted more. Still love it today.

I read somewhere that you can minimize this habit by allowing him to do it only in his room. Every time he sucks it you tell him he can only suck it in his room and send him in there. I don't know if this really works, though.

Sorry to ramble. I understand your concern with germs. I was very sick most of my childhood-probably from sucking my dirty thumb. I have an extremely strong immune system now, though.

Best Wishes!

Hello Sleina,
I too was a finger sucker. I sucked my middle and index fingers. Growing up, my parents did everything they could think of to try to get me to stop; from hot sauce to duck taping my fingers. And it seemed that the more they tried, the more I felt the need to suck on them. It was a sense of security I couldn't get from anywhere elts. I just ended up hiding it from everyone. And because of the stink they made of it, I always felt ashamed. I read somewhere that the more you badger a child about something like this, the more they are going to do it, and that most kids if left alone will eventually grow out of it. I'm a perfect example. I sucked my fingers until I was 22. I even had braces and that didn't stop me. I always found a way. Still to this day sometimes I feel the urge to do it, but my fingers don't fit in my mouth any more.lol You said your son has a callous from doing this; so did I. Not only did I have callouses, my fingers were wrinkly all the time, and I had indents from my teeth where I would bite down when I was sucking. Not to worry though it all went away eventually. So coming from someone with a personal experience, my advise would be to just wait it out and see if he grows out of it. Or you could try this stuff they call bitter nail. It's for people who bite their nails. I think they have a child version of it. You put it on the fingers and when they put them in their mouth it tastes nasty. It never worked for me, but it might for you. good luck -----A.-----

My son was doing the same thing at your sons age. He was putting his index and thumb in his mouth and was getting sores on his face because of all the wetness. Well, he is almost 3 1/2 and is completly broken of the habit.

What we did was we showed him the sores in the mirror and told him we were worried about his skin and did not want him to have boo boos. We explained to him why he was getting the sores. Then, we said that if we saw him put his hands in his mouth we would have to put medicine on them and he did not like this. (we would put on either neosporin or the minty Burtsbees chapstick). This helped.

Also, he had seen an advertisement that came in the mail for an octopus playdoh toy and he really wanted it. So he we made a chart and told him that after 5 days of not putting his hands in his mouth we could go to toys r us and get the toy. We made the chart together and put the picture of the toy on top of the chart. There were five good sized boxes on the chart, each representing a day. We hung it on the fridge and each time I saw him without his fingers in his mouth, I would give him a sticker and lots of praise and by the end of the day he would have about 6 to 10 stickers. I did not have any set amount that he had to get, the point was just to give him a lot of encouragement. If I saw him with his fingers in his mouth, I would remind him about the octopus and he would take them out. I normally don't bribe with toys, but I felt this was ok because of the chart and the positive reinforcement. Plus, nothing else was working and I thought this was worth a try. Anyway, he got the octopus and after he got it, he still put his fingers in his mouth, but he had cut way down and was really aware of when he did it. I would still give him reminders and two months later, the habit was gone for good.

I hope this helps, it is just an idea...

Didn't think I could offer any help until I read your thing about holding his lovey and sucking finger anyway... then the idea of a puppet came to mind. Tell him that he can only hold it with his hands inside or try to make it so that it's a big deal to always wear the puppet on his hand. Not sure if it's only on one hand or if he'll switch to the other with one puppet... or else buy 2 hand puppets... hope that helps!

There is some stuff you can buy (used to be able to from the drug store) that has a bitter flavor. You can put it on his fingers and when he goes to suck it won't taste so yummy. I have also had friends that put medical tape on the fingers, the white kind. It won't hurt the skin but makes it not so comforting to suck on. just put a couple of rings of that over the callouses. Hopefully that helps!

I would not worry about it. Both my kids suck their thumb/fingers. My now 3 yr old sucks her thumb and it is a great form of security for her and really helps her sleep, along with her blanket. She has a callous as well, but I don't think its a big deal. I'm sure she will not suck her thumb forever. My little boy sucks his 2 fingers (middle and ring finger) together, he has a blanket as well. They are both great sleepers because of it and can comfort themselves inthe car, etc. Babies need a way to comfort and your baby has found that. You will never be able to change it to a blanket or something else. Be happy that you have a happy baby! They will stop one day! Take care.

My daughter sucked her thumb so much/hard that it actually became raw. I had to put antibiotic ointment and a band-aid on it. Eventually she got out of the habit because of the band-aid.

Hi S.,

Your little boy has found an adorable form of security :o) I think he's too young to give it up already. At 2 yrs old, they still need those sucking securities....right?

If I were you, I would let him. Why go through all the tears at such a young age? There will be plenty of time get him to limit his sucking when he's a little older.

When he is old enough to understand that he could only "do it" when he's laying down in his room, not on the couch. Because when he sucks on his fingers, it means he's sooooo tired.

Once he starts Kindergarten, he will really taper off, if he hasn't stopped by then.

I wouldn't worry yet. But that's just my opinion :o)

:o) N.

My daughter is 14 and just stopped thumbsucking a year ago while going to sleep. She had a big callous on her thumb and it has gone away. She never got sick from it as I too made sure she washed her hands. She was sucking her thumb in the womb everytime I had an ultrasound. I wouldn't worry about it.

Sorry, I don't have any advice, but just wanted to say that I sucked my index finger knuckle when I was a tot and I think beyond 2.5, possibly well beyond (I know I had the rag I would finger while sucking my knuckle until around seven). I had a calloused finger, too. I think what made me stop was finally embarrassment at sleepovers with other kids. I'm sure you'll find a way to stop this sooner than that, but I wanted to reassure you that the callous went away along with the habit!

Hello, there.

I sucked my finger until I was quite old, I want to say 7 or 8 years old. The finger I sucked (index) is thinner than the other, but no one would notice but me. My son had to be weaned from the pacifier at about 6 or 7, too. Some of us really need the oral thing to happen; I guess I would say don't worry too much about it. My parents tried all sorts of things and nothing worked until I decided to stop.

Try not to make it a power struggle.My daughter was sucking her thumb for a long time,and she stopped by her self.Whenever the in-laws would make a deal out of it ,it only made it worse...like a game.
As she got older she just got to busy to do it out and about,and did it only to go to sleep.And around 5 it was over.
She is 7 years old now and her permanent teeth came in just fine.

My son was a thumb sucker until about 2.9 years and then he just stopped. It may have been when he went to preschool, but there are plenty of kids there that are still carrying lovies, etc. so I don't think it was peer pressure, or just his natural time to stop. His callous is gone...

The bigger deal you make about it, the longer it will go one. They really do stop in their own time.