Hi All, My one year old diligently sucks her thumb. For the most part she only does to fall asleep or when she is hungry. However, recently she seems to be doing it more and more and her thumb is all red. Any ideas out there to get her to break this habit?
The only suggestions i have are a bit on the tougher side.
The 1st is Sally Hansen Nail Biter. Its a clear nail polish that tastes NASTY. My aunt used this with my cousin when he was still tumb-sucking at 7. When that failed she took him to the dentist, who put in an appliance to help him stop.
I echo almost everyone else. My daughter is almost 2 and sucks her thumb the same way you describe. I am hesitant to take any huge action such as the THUMZ ointment as my doctor and sister dentist assure me that she'll be fine....even though we've already had a course of antibiotics and drainage of a thumb callous via needle at the dr.'s office when it became infected. You may notice that she will suck more often when she is teething....which will be for at least another year. I try this trick when I notice she's sucking while in the car or store. I ask her to hold her hands together and she usually will. We make a game of it where everyone holds their hands together and it gives her something to focus on rather than mindlessly sucking.
Don't worry and good luck.
The only suggestion I have is to try and sew the pajamas shut but you have to make sure it is a one piece or they can be littl houdini's(spelling)
Everyone told me not to worry about it until she was 4 or 5, but now it is almost impossible to get her to stop and it is very hard. If you can find something to work do it now, so you don't have to do it later. Trust me it is so much harder when they get older.
1st step as a gentle reminder is putting a fun character bandaid on the finger they suck
later on if she still sucks her thumb things like pinning socks to her pj's so she can't get to her thumb
and rewarding with stickers on a chart
if the thumb sucking coincides with another habit like a blanket or twirling mom's hair etc try eliminating that other habit sometimes one habit cannot survive without the other
dentally (i'm a hygienist) it varies from child to child how often they suck how much pressure they put on the roof of their mouth or their teeth it is possible to cause damage that can only be rectified by ortho in some cases
I hope you get some good ideas, because my 2 year old sucks his thumb and I don't know if there are any ideas that work. I sucked my thumb as a child, and no matter what my parents did, nothing got me to stop. I had a bump (callous..?) on my thumb from all the years of sucking it, and my son is starting to develop the same thing. The embarressment of having that there is the only reason I finally quit, but I was pretty old. At times even when I was 11 or 12 I would wake up to find my thumb in my mouth...force of habit I guess!! So maybe I can get some ideas too, but I am not counting on it...I think they just might need to grow out of it. My husband put a small glob of lotion on our son's thumb one day, and it stopped him for a while, but eventually he didn't care and went back to sucking. Oh yeah, one more thing- I never needed braces because of the thumb sucking. I had a slight overbite, but now as an adult, people think all the time that I had braces as a kid because my teeth look good. So you may not need to worry about that factor as she grows.
My opinion is that she's only one...let her be comforted if it comforts her. My 22 month old and 3 year old suck their thumbs (my 3 year old STARTED sucking his thumb at 20 months after his baby brother was born). My 3 year old is starting to not want to suck his thumb, so I remind him periodically when he forgets. He primarily sucks his thumb when he is feeling shy, or not much to do like in the car as well as for falling asleep. Thinking of buying the stuff that tastes real bad to put on his thumb to help him out, but don't yet know where it is available to buy. My 3 year old had his first dentist appointment, I asked the dentist about it, and he said it's alright still as far as the teeth go...the teeth will adjust again when he stops sucking his thumb. The thumb being all red is not a big deal, won't hurt it.
Hi, T. ~ My daughter sucks her thumb and she is almost three. I have talked to the doctor several times about this and he said that there is no need to worry until she is about 4 or 5. I also have done some research online and all the sites say the same thing ~ they will eventually outgrow it and it is nothing to worry about. My doctor (and these websites) said that the more you try to get them to stop, the more they will want to keep sucking their thumb. My sister sucked her thumb until she was almost 6 (apparently thumb sucking is hereditary ~ I also had a cousin who sucked her thumb). My sister's teeth came in beautifully ~ she never had an overbite and she seriously looks like she had braces. Whereas, I'm the one with braces at 37 years of age! So, I wouldn't worry about it ~ it's a source of comfort for her right now. L.
Research shows most kids give up thumb sucking on their own by 6yrs. old. It is a soothing tool for them and generally the more you push them to stop the more they suck. My son sucked his thumb for the same reasons you are describing and as he grew older he sucked less and less. Especially when he started school. By the way his teeth are fine. One thing we did was to point out that the sucking made his thumb red and cut it so perhaps he could try not to suck so much. Instead he could use a blanket/toy/hug etc. Approach it from a matter of fact health concern and not a peer pressure sort of thing. Try not to worry shes young.
