How to Stop Thumb Sucking

Thumb sucking is cute.... for a little while. When the child reaches the point of kindergarten and still has an infatuation with keeping a thumb in their mouth, it's time to do something about it. My daughter sucked her thumb until she was six; and believe me, I tried just about everything to get her to stop. This article will give you a few ideas to try to hopefully end thumb sucking for good.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• a thumb sucker
• persistence

1. Start by talking to your little one; using good communication will help create a healthy foundation. Explaining that sucking your thumb in college just won't be cool, and that it would be best to start stopping now might make a good basis for argument to begin with. Put your child in charge; tell them that it's time for them to make that big decision and stop sucking.

2. If step one doesn't work, it's time to be a bit more encouraging. Try creating a chart with stickers for each day (or hour?!?) that your child doesn't put their thumb in their mouth. Be sure to watch carefully, they can sneak that little thumb in for a quick suck when you're not watching before you know it. Reward their progress with a treat once a pre-established number of stickers is achieved.

3. There are many products on the market that are especially designed to help stop thumb sucking. Try products that are painted on the thumb and taste bitter. I used a product called Hoof with my daughter, which I purchased at Walgreens. However, I was not surprised to find that my daughter was extremely persistent, and ate it off, and continued sucking. It was obviously time to try another idea...

4. I went online and researched as many thumb sucking remedies and thumb sucking cures as I could find, and I found them to all be quite expensive, with the same general idea. I tried a home remedy for thumb sucking where I tried putting some hot sauce or chili powder on my child's thumb. It tastes awful, and if they make the mistake of putting their thumb in their mouth, the taste lingers. Yuk!

5. Band-aids can be helpful too, believe it or not. You can try using cute colorful character bandages so that you can say "Oh no! You don't want to eat Big Bird, do you?" If that doesn't work, try using a ton of medical tape (applied loosely) to discourage thumb sucking. Hopefully your child will not enjoy a mouthful of medical tape.

6. I had to get drastic, and so I actually applied a rigid splint to her arm, to keep her thumb away from her mouth. It's very hard to suck your thumb when you can't bend your elbow. (mwahahahaa!) You can use a store brought splint, or even a card board box cut to size with an ace bandage wrapped around it securely. This is a drastic measure that is best saved for the most persistent thumb suckers.

Tips & Warnings

• Children suck their thumb not only for comfort, but as a matter of habit, especially at night. The splint is particularly useful to help prevent subconscious thumb sucking.
• Be sure that there are no underlying causes for the thumb sucking. Talk to your child! :)
• Enjoy the cuteness, it will be over all too soon.

Resources

• Stop Thumb Sucking
• Your Hand Aid
• Thumb Buddy to Love

[writedesign]

on 5/7/2009 I may have to go the splint route (mwahahahaa!). Mine sucks her thumb every chance she gets. I think we have ONE picture of her not sucking her thumb. I'm going to try the bandaid and sticker approach first. 5*