How to Stop Thumbsucking

You could try hot sauce or that stuff that you can buy in the drug store. Hot sauce should work on the first try. I know it sounds harsh but if you saw my cousin's teeth (33 yrs. old), you would definitely try it. He teeth are completely ruined after years of thumbsucking. IT's horrible!

I wouldn't worry about her thumbsucking quite yet. It helps her soothe herself. I sucked my thumb until I was older and I turned out fine!!

I'm a former thumbsucker. I didn't stop until I was 8 years old. My parents tried everything, but nothing worked because I wasn't ready to give it up.

Please don't use the bitter nail polish. It was torture and it made all of my food taste terrible. Most importantly, it didn't stop me from sucking my thumb.

My son was addicted to his paci until it got a hole in it and lost suction (a week after he turned 2). I would tell him he had to sit in bed if he wanted to use his paci. Maybe you could tell her she has to go sit in her room while she sucks on her thumb and when she's done she can come back and play?

Hi D., My name is M. and I was a thumb sucker too. Don't bother trying to get your daughter to quit. The more you challenge her the more she will resist. My parents tried everything from putting socks on my hands at night, to painting my thumb nail with this nasty tasting stuff. I sucked my thumb anyway. Let her be, she will quit on her own. My teeth are perfect, speech corrected itself. My thumb was my security, just as it is your daughters. I didn't stop until I was 11 or 12 years old when I fell asleep in class at school one day and was seen by all my classmates sucking my thumb. From that day on I never sucked it again. She will stop when ready, please don't force her. M.

I sucked my thumb till I was about 7. At that time I had to see an Ortho to get a spacer put in. He suggested we tape my thumb and finger together and put up a calendar that showed whether or not when I awoke in the morning was the tape still there. Basically it was a reward system, after a month of waking up with tape still there I received something. Although, I must say this was back in the 70's and I probably only got an atta girl! Either way, I stopped sucking my thumb, speech is fine and I have nice teeth! HA!

Your life sounds like mine--I had three children in 23 months!

I sucked my thumb until kindergarten, when my mother told me if I didn't stop, my teeth would fall out. And when I lost my first tooth, I stopped sucking my thumb.

Have you taken her to Early On for a screening? A speech therapist and an occupational therapist together may have some wonderful ideas for stopping the thumb sucking and working on communication and speech.

Hi, D.,

Lots of suggestions, but none talk about what's going on for your daughter. Thumbsucking, hair pulling, nail biting, and all other nervous habits are all behaviours that alleviate anxiety, temporarily at least. Sucking is soothing and lots of babies do it before they're born.

As you have experienced, reminding a 2yo is like talking to a hurricane - it might make you feel like you're making sounds, but it's not going to have any noticable effect. The fact is, 2yos lack the brain structures to remember contextual information like this. Besides, the effectiveness of the soothing will win 100% of the time over anything someone said or did 10 minutes ago.

Since the behaviour is naturally-reinforcing (she enjoys it and it calms her), and doing nearly anything that draws attention to what she does when she's anxious (there is a lot for any 2yo to be anxious about - do you remember being a little kid and how big the world felt?) will add to her anxiety, you can use the techniques people have suggested to force her to find another way to alleviate her now-increased anxiety...

...Or you could help her deal with her anxiety in more effective ways.

For now, it's probably worth noting that a 2yo sucking her thumb falls into 'normal' behaviour, and abnormal thumb sucking is what happens after the age of 5. Before that, dental disorders are unlikely.

One last personal note: my husband adores super-spicy foods, and he links it to the great joy he got from sucking his thumb *anyhow* when people were putting a lot of effort into stopping him.

Try Thumz on her thumb. CVS carries it. It might make a difference if it doesn't completely curtail it.

We used the bitter polish intermittently, when the reminding wouldn't work. We incorporated reminders into everything. For example when reading a book, if we saw the thumb creep in to the mouth, we would stop reading and look at him...in a minute he would remember why we stopped, take his thumb out and then we would continue. Stuff like that. Also, explain WHY you want the behavior to stop. It's comfort to them, so making it all of a sudden not okay to do doesn't make sense to them. By 2+ they are old enough to understand simple explanations. Our son was 3 when we made the cut-off. Now we have a 23 month old who is addicted to the paci...he looks like he is older than 2, though, so Im sure I get funny looks from people wondering why he still has a paci....I just don't care! LOL

~L.