My Soon to Be 5 Yr Old Daughter Sucks Her Fingers.

I love the idea of the sparkle nail polish so cute! And a great motivator!

There is also a kind of nail polish called "bite no more" it is a clear nail polish that just tastes really bad. I used to bite my nails when I was in elementary school and my mom put this on my nails I still remember it 20 years later and I haven't bit my nails sense. :)

There is something called a fence that the dentist can put in her mouth. It is a metal plate of sorts that rests at the roof of the mouth so that she can't suck her thumb or it at least won't be relaxing anymore so she'll stop.
I'm working with my daughter to stop sucking her thumb (she's 4 also). She has finally almost stopped except for sleeping. If not she's going to get wired up. Its way cheaper than waiting for braces! Right now she's workign on stopping becuase she wants to get sparkle nailpolish for her nails and I said not until she stops sucking her thumb cause she can't have her thumb in her mouth. That has seemed to be help convince her. Now its just a matter of breaking the habit- she won't even realize shes sucking her thumb. I have to watch her especially when she's relaxing/watching tv or sitting in the car. She's at the point that she will take it out when you remind her. Try to find something your daughter really wants and reward her day by day until she breaks the habit or else - dentist!

Good luck!
A.

I was a bit older than your daughter ( I think I was in 1st or 2nd grade!) but here is what my dad did:

He trusted me to tell the truth-- when I went a whole day without sucking my finger, I got a quarter. Since you're home with her, it shouldn't be too difficult to see if she does it or not. Since she is young, you may want to start small, like she wakes up and by lunch time she gets a quarter if she hasn't sucked it all that time, then another quarter if she goes through to dinner without it, etc. Or you may want to do dimes instead. Eventually, my dad said he wasn't going to give me a quarter every day for the rest of my life, so he turned the tables and said any day that I DID suck my finger then I would have to give HIM a quarter! There was no way I was giving up those quarters!!! If she needs a more instant gratifictaion then just a pile of money, maybe let her know that for every X amount of quarters (or dimes) that she will get ____ ( a slurpie at 7-11, a shopping spree at the dollar store, etc.)

I agree with Ana. Find something your daughter wants and make stopping the finger sucking the thing that earns her the prize. My daughter had to stop chewing her nails, before she got a slime science kit (she was 6 yrs old). But that was the bargain we made. i ordered it for her, but she couldn't have it unless she stopped chewing for 3 weeks and her nails grew out. Once she had given it up for that long, it wasn't hard to keep them that way. The occasional relapse, but nothing daily.

The idea of sparkly nail polish is a great idea. Most of the cheap little sparkly ones don't stay on very well anyway (at least in my experience with my daughter). So if she puts them in her mouth, it will come off that much faster. Also, chewing gum helps my daughter. Not big wads of bubble gum, but a stick of juicy fruit or Trident. Some kids are more orally fixated than others. If she has gum in her mouth, she'll be less likely to stick her fingers in there. Obviously bedtime would be the hardest... but she could use the gum as a "crutch" in the beginning during the day to get started.

HTH

Hi

I know how you feel, my daughter sucked her fingers also until age 8 3/4. I tried a lot of things-bribery, positvie reinforcement, reasoning, something I bought on the internet that goes over the fingers to help, bad tasting polish, etc... Nothing worked until the orthodontist put an appliance in for finger sucking when my daughter got an expander(and expander is used to expand the palate if a child needs as part of orthodontic treatment). The dentist can also put in a habit appliance but it is expensive. I was already paying a set fee for the ortho treatment so it was included and at that age she was ready but needed the help. She had the habit appliance in for 12 weeks. It has been about 6 weeks without and she still has not sucked. At her age she wanted to quit but couldn't yet do it on her own.

Our pediatrician had suggested using a sock and positive reinforcement. Try setting a time for not sucking and give a reward and gradually increase the time. It may work for your daughter.

Good luck!

It's a self-soothing way of dealing with stress... so you'd want to help her find alternate ways of relaxing and relieving tension, and maybe even develop a stress-relief routine for your family since kids easily pick up the stress of others in their environment. Breathing deeply, massage, listening to music that relaxes the nervous system, reiki, healing touch, and other things that help people relax can assist in reducing the need to engage in self-soothing behaviors like thumb-sucking. Some people like to use tricks to discourage sucking, like putting hot pepper on the thumb, but that doesn't resolve the stress, and some other undesirable habit might arise instead.

hi,

I would love to help, in my practice in Port Orange, I specialize in helping children to stop sucking their thumb, fingers, clothes, etc. Additionally, in most cases, the open bite can be reversed with out appliances once the habit stops. Please contact me, we will work something out.

Does your daughter have any allergies? Does she breathe through her mouth? Is she on any medications?

At age 5 it is a good time to work with your daughter to end this behavior.

If you are not able to come to Port Orange, if your computer has a camera, we can work remote in most instances.

Take Care,

B.

When my kids put their fingers in their mouths, I asked them if I could have a bite, too. It made them super aware of this habit, and they stopped.
She appears to be nervouse about something, so encourage her to talk with you about her feelings. An older sibling with CP is a stressor. My older, and only, sister had downs' syndrome. It was a nightmare to live with.