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jenniferraborn

I apologize if I have posted about this before but I am at am loss. Does anyone have any experience with an older child sucking their thumb? I have a 6 year old foster son that has been with us for 5 months now and he ducks his thumb a lot.

At first I figured it was a coping mechanism or a comfort thing and the pediatrician said that at his age trying to get him to stop sometimes makes things worse. I have explained to him why he should not and he has gotten some negative attention from peers for doing it and it is affecting his schoolwork. We have tried several different things and nothing seems to deter him. He also has ADD and it may be part of that to because it is just another way he figits? I also think maybe he used it as a way to keep quiet as to not get into trouble?

Has anyone had success breaking the habit in an older child? If so, what did you do?

ally2011

Could you get him a stress ball to squeeze instead?

SummerLove21

I don't have personal experience with this, but our pediatric dentist suggested a reward sticker chart for when DS turns two (he is still sucking his thumb and shows no signs of stopping).  So...every time he takes his thumb out of his mouth to do something else (like homework, in your case), he gets a sticker.  When he gets so many stickers, he gets a small "prize." 

Sorry I don't have more answers.  Hope you find something that works!

cinnasugar

My 4yo sucks her thumb.  It is now limited to mostly when she's tired or going to sleep, but in light of her other behavior issues, this isn't a fight I'm ready to fight right now.  My MIL told DD the story about her daughter (DD's aunt) who wore gloves to sleep when she wanted to stop sucking her thumb.  DD has mentioned wanting to wear gloves to sleep whenever she decides she wants to quit, but she hasn't told us she wants to yet, and I'm going to let her take the lead on that.  

jenniferraborn

I did try the sticker reward chart thing for about a month. I dunno, it worked but we were using it to address a few issues (school, being nice to my other foster son etc) so there were like 5 things he could get stars for and he would just save up from other things to get what he wanted (a trip to Monkey Joes was what he wanted) instead of quitting with the thumb sucking. Maybe if we did it an focused just on that. I THINK that maybe he does it less than he did at first? Maybe? At one time he would not go 30 min...now i still see him do it a lot but I"m not sure how much.

His teacher gave him gum to put in his mouth and that was mildly successful with keeping his hands focused on his work. I think I will try getting a stress ball and see if that helps but I think he may just hold that in one hand and suck the other? I did put a bandaid on his thumb at home to remind him not to suck it and that works IF he wants it to but I kinda hate to do that for school.

Not sure if I worded it badly but I didn't tell him that "people will make fun of you" or anything like that but there have already been a few instances of issues. Mostly because he sucks his thumb so it is wet and then he'll touch something or someone and they'll say EWW or something like that.

He is the sweetest kid but we have really been working with him on ways to cope with his attention issues and this is something that just keeps coming up as well.

jenniferraborn

Yeah there really is. That is the other thing. I found out that he will not be going back to where he was living before but we have not told him yet. The tentative plan involves him moving literally across the country to live with a relative he has never met so though I would like for him to stop if it is a comfort thing for him then part of me says meh, whatever it takes takes for him to cope because life has dealt him a shitty hand and now just might not be the time to fight this battle . In general I try not to treat my foster children any differently but they have very unfair very adult problems to deal with.

brachysira

I agree with what you just said.  The one thing that comes with him everywhere can provide comfort when everything is changing and the world is so scary.  I would not want to take that away.  You can tell him that it isn't very socially acceptable so he might want to quit at school and that he should work on stopping to do school work, but he can always do it privately.

khaze

Oh man.  I sucked my thumb at home until I was 7 or 8.  My dad finally had a talk with me and basically said big kids don't suck their thumbs and I stopped.  I have no advice, but I'm not sure it's completely abnormal.