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Finger/Thumb Suckers and breaking the habit... Any advice?

Lyndsay22184Lyndsay22184 member
in Pre-School and Daycare

My 3.5 y/o DS is a finger sucker and has been ever since he was in the womb! (He sucks on the middle and ring fingers of his right hand)

I was wondering if any of you have/had kids who are/were finger/thumb suckers and when and how did you try breaking them of this habit? 

I'm not sure how to go about breaking DS of this since he's literally been doing it his whole life... Any advice on how or when to try and break the habit? Or should I just not worry about it right now? TIA!!

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Re: Finger/Thumb Suckers and breaking the habit... Any advice?

  • smokenbogeysmokenbogey member
    I have a 3 yr old son who I'm trying to break the habit of too,but from all his thumb sucking he has 2 warts on his thumb from,plus he sucks it more when he has his lovie with him.Not sure what the heck to do,need to get rid of the warts first but don't know how cause he will still put in mouth.The dentist said the sooner we can get him to stop the better.There's this product I want to try called the thinger,have on ebay,it's just a thumb guard with a buckle and they have a ton of diffrent patterns to choose from,and then maybe do like a reward system I was thinking too to get him to stop.
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  • LoCarbLoCarb member

    My personal experience comes from me-I sucked my thumb and eventually stopped around the age of 3-4 b/c I was embarrassed. My teeth were not affected. I think your LO's will grow out of it soon. If your LO respects a drs/dentists opinion they may listen to a professional. I know my DD stopped drinking from a sippy cup when the dentist told her it wasn't good for her teeth. Immediately stopped that day. That's an option. Or try these....

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  • jlw2505jlw2505 member
    Honestly the best thing is time and peer pressure.  He will get to a point for his friends makes comments about it.  Both of my DD's have been thumb suckers.  DD#1 since 2 months of age and she was hard core.  We tried the yucky tasting nail polish and it didn't phase her, tried the band aide trick - nothing.  Finally, her speech therapist suggested we get her a chewy toy like they use for therapies for kids with cheing/eating issues and a rubber stretchy bracelet.  The chew toy gave her something to do with her mouth but it is not as harmful to the teeth as a thumb/finger and the bracelet gave her something to do with her hands.  DD was a few months past 5 when she gave it up - We started with short timeframes - if she went the car ride from school (10-15 mins) without sucking, she got a reward.  If she made it through book time at night (again 10-15 mins) she got a reward.  Once she was able to do that, we upped the time to any time we were in the car.  Once she had those masted, she was pretty much done.  She went from basically always having her thumb in mouth to done in about 3 weeks.  She wore the bracelet for a few months adn night time took a little bit longer but we always had her sleep in the bracelet and put the chew toy on her night stand.  DD #2 is 4 and still sucking away although she was never as hard core as her sister and we have not really pushed it with her yet although we have started talking about it and gave a goal of when she starts PreK in the fall so we will start working on it the same way we did her big sister towards the end of summer.  Oh and when DD stopped totally and made it a few weeks without going back - she got a huge reward that we had discussed and decided on in the beginning - she got her first real mani at the salon, a watch and a tea party at American Girl which her 3 local aunts and her 1 local grandma plus DD#2 and I got to go to with her.  It was great and DD #2 is already looking forward to her reward and talks about the nail salon alot as for now, we only polish her fingers - no thumb and she knows the 1st time they will get polished is when I take her as her reward.
    Jenni Mom to DD#1 - 6-16-06 DD#2 - 3-13-08 
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  • Lyndsay22184Lyndsay22184 member
    Thank you for the personal stories and advice! Very helpful- thanks again!!  I appreciate y'all taking the time to answer this :)
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  • Leila'sMommyLeila'sMommy

    What broke my habit was my older cousin telling me only babies did that, and telling me to just stick my hand under my pillow before falling asleep. Worked like a charm. However, every morning I wake up with my hand asleep and tingly because I've slept on it all night ;)

    I was a crazy addicted thumb sucker. I would take my long hair and wrap it around my fingers, then stick my thumb in my mouth. It was like this complicated method to keep my thumb in my mouth and make sure it stayed there. It wasn't hard at all to give up thumb sucking once I tried what my cousin suggested. 

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