Thumb Sucking

sewolff

My almost 5 year old is still sucking his thumb and the dentist says it's starting to damage his teeth and palate.  I've been looking at various plastic thumb "guards".  Has anyone used something that works?  

julie1445

The dentist offers one that attaches to the back molars, my boss used it on her daughter and it worked amazing. My daughter we used surgical tape that was hard to remove, it stopped the suction that they like so much. It was 3 days of hell but we were able to take the tape off and she stopped, shes 4 and this was just a few months ago

julie1445

*surgical tape wrapped around the thumb

Rocshana

Recently I came across an interesting article on how to wean off your child from sucking his/her thumb. Some of the suggestions were as follows:

• Don't criticize or confront. Instead of saying "You can't suck your thumb anymore," try praising him when he's not in the act.
• If you feel you can't stop him sucking his thumb altogether, try limiting the amount of time he spends sucking it. For example, you could try explaining to him that it is a bedtime/nap-time activity.
• Try practicing self-awareness with your child. When your child is sucking his thumb, ask him, "Do you know you are sucking your thumb now?" If he says no, help him recognize that and find another way to soothe him if he needs it, like a blanket or stuffed animal.
  

CarrieB.

I've tried putting a hello kitty bandaid on DD1's thumb, but I just feel so bad doing it. She's only 3 though. I don't mind her doing it at night, but I think she shouldn't do it during the day anymore.

When she had the stomach flu back in Nov, she quit completely, not even at night, but now she's back to doing it all the time.

Sweetpea192

I don't see the harm in a child sucking his/her thumb. Unless it's causing damage then yes of course something would have to be done about it. It's a comfort thing so try to slowly replace the thumb sucking with something else like a teddy or a blanket. I'm talking from experience. I was a thumb sucker myself & my parents tried everything but nothing worked. I've no damage to my teeth from it & occasionally now I suck my thumb more so when I'm tired & ill.