I have three kids- they are ALL thumb suckers. I think I'm starting to freak out because my oldest is 5 years old and we just have a terrible time getting her to stop. The oldest only sucks her thumb at night to fall asleep, we had almost had her stopped and then a friend at school said her mom still let her suck her thumb and for some reason that made her totally regress. We have tried the Thumb med it doesn't work it does NOTHING to get her to stop she just sucks anyways. We have tried socks on her hands but she takes them up and pulls her thumb out and puts it in her mouth. My other two kids are a 3 year old boy and a 14 month old girl. I know that when we took my oldest to the dentist he wasn't worried until age five but now that I can't get my five year old to stop I'm freaking about the other two kids as well. We don't have insurance that will cover the thing they put in their mouth, and i have no idea how much those cost or how they work. we would have to find a different dentist too because ours does not make them.
They WILL outgrow it.
Having said that, my SD sucked her thumb until she was 10.
We tried everything.
She finally outgrew it. Might have helped having a few sleepovers but later when she was older. At first, she wasn't phased by the "embarrasment factor".
Let it go. It all stops in due time.
Apparently, my brother in law sucked his thumb until 2nd grade. To get him to stop, they taped his thumb to his pointer finger every night. (With that athletic tape for fingers.) It didn't take long for him to stop.
2 of my 3 are/were thumb suckers. My oldest has completely quit, he's almost 11 now. My second oldest is working on it but isn't there yet, he's soon to be 8. We found that the more we got pushy about it and pestered about it the more they resisted. What we did instead was a gentle reminder when we saw them doing it while watching TV or something. We say a simple "thumb out" and they go "oh" and take it out. We had one sit down discussion in a non-threatening way explaining how it could hurt their teeth etc. It really sunk in when they started loosing their baby teeth and adult teeth started coming in. The idea of possible braces really doesn't appeal to them ;)
If the dentist is not worried then you need to stop worrying. The dentist will refer you to a doc if the need comes up.
Is it definitely harming your 5 year old's mouth? I sucked mine much longer than that with no issues. I only did it at night and was very secretive about it! I wish I still did - it relaxed me so! I've woken up a few times as an adult sucking my thumb! Don't freak out. They'll all stop in due time.
Try a reward system/star/sticker/treasure chest...etc reward system.
So, they can't keep fingers out of mouth for how long? An hour, 3 hours, all night?
They do it, they get a sticker. After 5 stickers, they get to hit the treasure chest! Woohoo! Get some little dollar treats, those crazy bracelets, whistles, whatever is cheap and they like. Then, do it again and repeat. As it gets easier, increase the time.
not to be the extremest here but sometimes older kids suck their thumb because of scicological reasons. Maybe see if your insurance covers a child scicologist and make sure there is no underlinig issues otherwise I would not worry too much about it.
Well...all I can tell you is that I sucked my fingers till I was in 1st grade.
I would sit there in class and suck away! :)
Then my mom promised me a special trip to the toy store and I eventually stopped. I had to do it though-no one could shame me into stopping.
And trust me they tried.
If she is only doing it at night...that seems like progress to me.
My DD went from pacifier to finger chewing. I would take thumb sucking any day to fingers that barely have any fingernail on them. :(
I think they'll grow out of it, Mama!
Our dentist said they should stop sucking when their baby teeth fall out and they get permanent teeth - ideally even sooner. Both my kids stopped at age 8. We showed them pictures of the device that the dentist wanted to put in their mouth, it looked like 2 bands around rear molars connected by an S-shaped wire that curves along the roof of the mouth. This would prevent the thumb getting suction. Just that scare and then the bitter tasting nail polish that is really for stopping nail biting (available at CVS) worked for them. Both of them sucked on the corner of a receiving-type blanket for a while at night just to have that mouth feel, but I felt that would not affect their teeth. One ended up needing orthodontics but mostly because her teeth are so huge and they do not fit on her jaw. The other was the poster child for teeth - she had picket fence baby teeth and when the permanent teeth came in they filled up the space and she has no issues. In my family I am the only one who had orthodontics, and my 2 siblings also sucked fingers and thumbs so it is not a given that they will need care, nor that they will not need orthodontics if they never sucked their thumb. I loved that they were able to self soothe and at age 8 they understood why they had to stop and it took about a month of me stroking backs at night and singing songs again like when they were little to get them to forget about thumb sucking. Now at 11 and 14 they cannot imagine that they ever needed their thumbs to sleep. Relax and let your babies self soothe and maybe let the older girl suck only at night. Does her thumb stay in her mouth all night long or when you check later it is out? If it is out it is also not as bad. Then there is the totally opposite point of view from my adult dentist who feels that opening the airway and relaxing the tongue where many nerves and muscles come together in the back of the mouth is actually good for sleep. Go figure.
I don't have the answer - mine was 14, when we put the device in her mouth. Her teeth were a mess - I don't know if it was thumb or not, because my oldest didn't suck her thumb and her teeth were a mess. Sometimes, it's just genetics with the teeth. They had to put a palate expander in my 14 year olds mouth anyway - so the thumb device was attached to it. They put it in (without the cement) and she cried and cried and cried. The orthodontisit didn't know what to do. We finally got it cemented in - the poor child couldn't talk clearly due to all the metal in her mouth. It is what it is - now it's 1 1/2 years later, and her braces are about to come off.
