My second son, a four-year old, have not attended nursery school. Now, i'm enrolling him to a summer tutorial to get him ready to Kindergarten. My older son, who is now in the 2nd grade, also had the same when he was at pre-school. My problem is that my 4-year old is always sucking his thumb or forefinger, or was he nailbiting (i really don't know...) coz he never suck his thumb when he was younger.
I talked with my four-year-old and gave him more time and attention. I told him that if he surely don't like to put germs in his mouth with his hands, and i tell him stories or sing songs before bedtime. It worked! Now, i seldom see him put his fingers to his mouth and i know the habit will fade away eventually. Thanks so much for all your advices. I hope you'd stay happy always. God bless you!
H.
I am currently dealing with my six-year old who is sucking his finger. We are currently using Vicks salve and if that does not work we may have to go to Ben-Gay. (I am not sure if that can ingested though). Good Luck with yours cause I know that I need it with mine. :)
I teach Pre-K, and have seen this before. You may want to try over the counter remidies. You just put it on his thumb, and it when he goes to put it in his mouth -it will have a nasty taste. Or he may just stop on his own when he sees the other children not doing it. --Hope this helps.
well i know people that have used the nail bitter stuff it makes it nasty to put them in your mouth it gives off a bitter taste.... but if your child is that determines then he will just use his shirt sleeves like my son does and you can't pour the stuff on his clothes too.... i think this is something your child will grow out of the more he is around other children and he sees they son't do it... sit him down and give him a big boy talk and see how that works as well
I have 4 girls and have been a parent for 24 of those years. None of them sucked on thier hands or thumbs. My five year old just resently started bitting her nails and has her hands in her mouth all the time. I asked the teacher about it and she told me that children sometimes start up the oral thing because of stress. Who knows what she feels is so stressful. Changes in routine, new friends in the room, moving to a new house.....whatever it is. Drawing attention to it only makes the problem worse. Finding her things to do with her hands and keeping her busy helps. I hope its temporary but....who knows. She seems to be happy most of the time. We talk each night before bedtime. What your good and bad. She tells me what good things happened that day and what made her unhappy. We all handle changes differently. Sometime the peer pressure of other children name calling can be enough to make your son stop. I would ignor the behavior and see if you can get him to talk about his day. Maybe something is causing him to look for security.
Sucking a thumb or carrying a blankie around is a need for security. Incentive charts, telling him it is for bed-time only and having him pull it out of his mouth. Which may be ALOT!! Praising him for the times you DON'T see it in his mouth is a key. Children need that positive attention too. Giving him alot of time and attention and LOVE another key. So often we let the children play video games, watch tv but what they really need is our time, talking with them, reading to them...he may just be one of those that needs that EXTRA time. I'm sure you are a wonderful mother, every child is different, finding out his love languages (Love languages by Gary Smally) will help fill his 'love tank'. Blessings, A.
My daughter was 3 when we went to the dentist and he made an appliance that fit into the roof of her mouth, which was attached to the back molars like braces are. It didn't allow her to get a suction on her thumb when she tried to suck on it. It would normally take about 3 months to break the habit but I was going through a divorce and didn't want her to had to have too many changes at once. It stayed in for almost a year. But it WORKED!! I would do it again. It didn't break her from wanting something in her mouth but she didn't suck on anything, so she eventually broke that habit also.
My daughter was a thumb sucker. When she started pre-school she would not do it there because she didn't want the other kids to see her. She got where she would only do it when she was really tired and to go to sleep. I took a pair of knit gloves (the cheap one - 3 for a $1.00) and cut out the fingers but left the thumbs on and it only took a week to break her from sucking her thumb in her sleep. I also helped tremendously when the Dentist told her it was time to stop or it would mess up her teeth.
