Thumb sucking help

[zmom]

My daughter is nearly 3.5 and she loves to suck her thumb. She does still nurse once or twice a day (mostly at night). Both the doctor and the dentist have started encouraging me to have her stop sucking her thumb. I'm not sure how to do this in a gentle way. She's recently taken to nursing just a bit before bed and then sucking her thumb to go to sleep which is a welcome change for me. I'm torn because I don't want to discourage the (very gradual) nursing weaning because I'm having some health problems that need to be addressed but at the same time, I don't want to mess up her jaw/teeth by encouraging thumb sucking.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[abi&ben'smom]

I don't really have any good ideas, I just wanted to let you know that it may not affect her teeth. I will admit that I sucked my thumb until the 3rd grade and my teeth are pretty straight. And my neighbor's son still does also, and he's 8 1/2. His permanent teeth are coming in straight. They have tried everything to get him to stop, and it hasn't worked. Right now, they have him wear baseball gloves (even at school) to discourage him (at least that's what he told me--sometimes he doesn't tell the truth). But when I was up at their school the other day, he was sucking on the glove. My family never said anything to me, I actually remember deciding on my own to stop. It was hard!

[TiredX2]

I wouldn't sweat it.

Can you pull her thumb out of her mouth after she is asleeep?

This is what I figure:

Children are biologically programmed to nurse for 2.5-7 years. That means that some children will NEED to suck at least that long. 3.5 years is before either of my kids outgrew their sucking needs. From what I understand as long as their permanent teeth are not in they are not being effected.

Good luck.

[bobica]

does she only suck her thumb at night? if it's an all-day habit, start by setting daytime limits. when dd was 2 or so, we put the limit that it was only when being held or resting/sleeping. then just resting/sleeping. now it's after nighttime story and being tucked in. and, i pull it out when she's asleep. I'm sure i've gone into more detail in the past- if you do a search on thumbsucking, i know i've posted a ton

dd's teeth are a mess- she's got a side tooth that keeps moving inward. we'll have some orthodontist visits in our future, no doubt at all. we've discussed the effects on her teeth & she understands, but she still feels she needs it to fall asleep. she's turning 5 in march so we'll re-visit it then.

[Ranchdip]

I am trying to encourage my dd (who will be 5 in April) to stop sucking her thumb, but I dont think shes ready yet? I think kids will stop when they are ready.

[Heather30ish]

My oldest was a big thumb-sucker. He started seeing the dentist at age 3 and the dentist wasn't too worried. By the time he was 4 he was mainly doing it at night or when he was tired or stressed. At 5 it was still about the same, but over the course of that kindergarten year he gradually just...stopped. It was so gradual that I can't even pinpoint when it happened, but it did. We never encouraged him to stop, but we did ask that he not do it at school or on the bus because his hands might be dirty.


Unless your little one is constantly sucking, I can't imagine it would be worth the trauma to try and wean her at this point. Good luck!

[zmom]

Thanks for the replies. She mainly sucks her thumb at night or when she's resting but she does suck it sometimes at daycare too. Apparently, one of the other kids in her class at daycare told her the other day that "only babies sucked their thumbs" and my DD says, "but I just looked at her and kept sucking my thumb."

So, you know, good on her for not bowing to peer pressure but, um, I guess the peer pressure aspect won't work.

I tried to take her thumb out of her mouth last night when she was sleeping but she had an iron grip on it and the more I pulled, the tighter she held. I gave up because I didn't want to wake her.

I guess we'll just see what happens. We've started just trying to talk to her about it - she does well with explanations and I don't feel like it's an immediate cause for concern. Maybe we'll also try to set some daytime limits as bobica suggested. See what happens.

[LynnS6]

As a dedicated thumb sucker, I can tell you it's a really, really hard thing to break.

If you do try to take her thumb out at night, you'll have to 'break the latch' by opening up her jaws a bit (she probably won't wake up).

I would see if you can give her something else to do with her hands that's comforting -- that's what I ahd the most success with.

[LauraLoo]

My ds is 6.5 and still sucks his thumb. His teeth are fine (so far) and only at his last dental visit did the dentist begin to suggest that we start working on helping him stop. It has dwindled to right before bed, when he's on the tired side, or if he needs some comfort. Peer pressure has not worked with him. Today I asked him why he was sucking his thumb (in a nice way) and he told me he thought it tasted like lemonaide.........which was a little perplexing, but ok I'll roll with it.

When I asked his pediatrician about it a year or so ago, he said that attempts to stop a thumb sucker before they're ready most often backfire. They'll start doing other things like sucking on clothing or fingers, or develop other habits some of which could be worse than thumbsucking. He said that it will stop in time. My nephew is 9 and still sucks his thumb at home and his shirt sleeve at school. My brother and SIL are looking into one of those dental devices to stop it. Frankly, I'm more concerned about germs than anything else, so when I see ds sucking his thumb I ask him to go wash his hands. It's probably too late then anyway.

We've tried things like gum and bandaids, but ds isn't really into stopping yet, so until he wants to stop, it just isn't going to happen.

I was a thumb sucker, too, and when the dentist asked me if I was ready to quit, I stopped cold turkey.

No advice here, I guess, but just know that this could be a habit that is not easily broken.

[lightheart]

I can tell you a few things not to do.... from a past thumb sucker

do NOT use hot pepper or nasty tasting stuff on the thumb
do NOT make your child wear gloves to sleep in (this one just thinking about it gives me cringes, I felt so trapped)
do NOT push and push and push the issue!!

removing the thumb while your child is asleep sounds reasonable and also talking about limits whether it's times or places, at home, in room, on a special chair... whatever works for you guys.

I have a slight overbite of my top teeth, who knows if they are caused from my thumb or if that's just the way they would of been no matter what, no big issues with them though.

I am 100 zillionally % positive that I was sick as a child alot, mostly strep throat/ sore throats because of my thumb sucking - one thing to do is to make that better is to encourage frequant hand washing, even maybe insisting on if you are going to suck your thumb, take the time and wash your hands before the finger goes in the mouth.

[zmom]

OP here...

I was also a thumb-sucker as a child. I sucked my thumb until I was 5 or 6. My dad tried hot sauce and beer to get me to stop... Now I really love hot sauce and beer. The thing that finally did it was that I sucked so much, my nail fell off. Yuck!

We don't really want to force the issue but I do think it's important and that DD is at the age that she can start to understand about germs. I asked her this morning to not suck her thumb at daycare but that if she wanted to at naptime, to please wash her hands first. She seemed to think that was a reasonable request so we'll see how it goes. She is sick alot and I imagine that it does have to do with getting more germs from sucking her thumb.