Seeking Help with Thumb Sucking Child

I feel your pain! My daughter that is 4 still sucks her thumb. She does not do it as bad as she used to but none the less she still does it. I bought this stuff called Thumb. I got it at Walgreens. It seems to help. You paint it on their thumb and it taste bitter. I know when we do this she will not put her thumb in her mouth. Good luck. I hope this offers some help!!

K.,

All three of my children have sucked their thumbs and we are now suck-free!! I waited until they were old enough to "buy in" to the process (around 4). That's when their dentist began showing them impressions and pictures of teeth where the patient had been a thumb-sucker. Once the kids agreed that they wanted to stop, we put a band-aid or medical tape on their thumb during the day to serve as a reminder to keep it out of their mouth. Breaking the day-time habit was relatively easy. Night-time was considerably harder. For two of our children, the medical tape on the thumb worked at night. For the other one, it was not so easy. She would slide the tape off, apparently in her sleep. So, we put long socks (like baseball or soccer socks) on her hand(s) and then safety pinned them to her pajamas so that she could not accidentally take them off. We did that for about a month before we thought it was safe to remove them. It is a very hard habit to break and the first few nights are tough. But, I think, if they are old enough to understand and to want to break the habit themselves, it's a huge step in the right direction.

Hot Pepper, how ridiculous can one be?

However, I would try something like venigar,
I know where it has helped a couple of people
to quit biting there nails.

Good luck - God Bless

I used to suck my fingers until I was almost 7 & now my 3 year old son sucks his fingers too. We're not quite ready to break him of it yet, but now that he's finally potty trained, we might start thinking about it. My son usually only sucks his fingers when he has his security blanket. Our first step will probably be to put it away during the day. If your son has any items that he cuddles when he's sucking then try putting them away during the day. But don't try to stop him at bedtime until he's made good progress in the daytime. I remember my mom put this yucky stuff on my fingers called Thum. (no b) I think it is based off of cayenne pepper or citric acid or something like that. I didn't like it, but I remember if I endured it long enough it went away. My mom used hot sauce on my sister & she would suck anyway. I have heard of this stuff called Stop http://www.amazon.com/MAVALA-Stop-Biting-Thumb-Sucking/dp... for stopping thumb sucking & nail biting. And from what I've read it tastes really REALLY bad. It is like a nail polish so it doesn't wear off near as fast as Thum. You only have to apply every other day.

i feel for you dear... I will admit something that very few people know about me... I am 37 years old and I STILL suck my thumb... not all the time mind you, but in times of distress I can be found cuddled up with my favorite "blanky" as my dear Husband calls it, and my thumb in my mouth... my daughter is 20 months the 13th of this month and she only sucks her thumb when you put her down for bed or a nap and its just long enough until she falls asleep and that's it... I hope hope hope she will stop on her own... I won't force her to do it because I would be a hypocrite if I did considering I still have that bad bad habit...

Good luck,

Thumb sucker in Edmond, OK
AKA H. K

Another mamasource mom said it well: "if hot sauce or other nasty flavors worked, no kid would still be sucking his or her thumb."

There's some great advice in the Dr. Sears discipline book. There are several different tips. My favorite was, teach him to hold his thumb in his fist for that nice, comforting, secure feeling, and, meanwhile, to suck on his tongue. It mimics the thumb-sucking feeling but doesn't harm the teeth and is discreet. After a while, he will drop this replacement habit whenever he is ready, but at least it is harmless in the meantime.

Give him lots of love, encouragement, and reassurance that you two are a team on this. Whatever you do, don't make it a stressful thing, or an Issue :) Let the slip-ups happen. The thing to focus on is overall progress.

In general, try to keep things low-stress for him while he is transitioning to this new habit. Try to minimize outside obligations, keep to the routine, keep things nice at home, give lots of extra cuddles, and when you're feeling tempted to do some project or chore, just give him your mama love, instead. Play with those choo choo trains!

Have fun!
L.

I feel your pain! Our daughter did the same thing and after her second birthday I began noticing that her teeth were starting to turn crooked. My advice to you is to give him an ultimatum. We very calmly sat our daughter down and explained to her that she had a choice... to suck her fingers or to lose money out of her piggy bank. (You could chose whatever means the most to him). She stopped that day and she was an avid finger sucker.

About the hot sauce - that works too. The same daughter who was a finger sucker also developed the habit of nail biting so we decided to stop that immediately. The piggy bank trick didn't work this time, so we put a small amount of tabasco sauce in her mouth every time we caught her doing it. Be careful of rubbing in directly on his hands because he might rub it in his eyes. Putting it directly on the tongue got the message across rather quickly... we only had to do it four times before she quit.

Hope that helps :)

my older son now 44 was born sucking his thumb he almost starved cause he couldn't figure out how to suck his thumb and a bottle at the same time he finally figured he couldn't the doctor told me not to try and stop him from sucking his thumb and I followed the doctor advise he still sucked his thumb in his sleep when he was upset even after he became an adult I sucked my thumb and my mother tried everything including putting some bad tasting stuff I would cry tears till it was gone just leave it alone he will quit it on his own cause in trying to get him to stop you could cause him to do it longer good luck

K.,

let him outgrow it my son is 5 and he still sucks his thumb nothing has worked .

i was told if u force him to stop it'll give him a complex and have problems later on in life.