Thumb suckers! Come help me break the habit

momthatlifts · November 2014

Dd loves to suck her thumb. When she's hungry or tired or sometimes just playing in her bounce. I give her a paci, she either spits it in her sleep and replaces it with her thumb, or will immediately roll over and put her thumb in her mouth. Sometimes she just spits it out on purpose and replaces it with her thumb. That's how she likes to soothe herself so it's hard for me to take it away because now I'm going to have to find something else to help sooth herself to sleep. Anyways, what can I do to stop this habit? Common sense is telling me to pull her thumb out and replace it with the paci every time, but when we are all sleeping it's not. Possible Help?! Anyone?! Thank you! And an off topic question, is my siggy really big? It doesn't look big from my iPad

ns1 · November 2014

Haha. I just asked my pedi about this at my 3 year old's well checkup. He said that there is a dental device they can put in but it's not done until the kid can say they need help (around 6). He said this is what he had luck with with his 2 (of 4) kids who were thumb suckers. So, I'm just letting it be (especially with the 6 month old).

momthatlifts · November 2014

Thanks ladies. Are you worried at all about their teeth? Because so many people have told me it can mess with their teeth in some way

mrsbtobe20122 · November 2014

JKBMA2014 said:
Thanks ladies. Are you worried at all about their teeth? Because so many people have told me it can mess with their teeth in some way

I have no plan to "break the habit" at all. I love he always has his thumb, it doesn't get lost, and he can soothe himself. Ped said let him do whatever he wants, and my FIL is a dentist and said it really is no big deal. Thumb sucking it is for our house!

momo214 · November 2014

I disagree with @mrsbtobe20122‌. I was a thumb sucker for years. My parents were unable to break the habit and I had a terrible overbite that required years of ridiculous orthodontics to fix. I had other friends with similar issues from thumb sucking as well. Long term thumb sucking CAN cause dental problems.

KBowen715 · November 2014

I love thumb suckers. I think it shows a great independence to self pacify. My ten year old was a thumb sucker until he was 5. Even now in the throes of dental work, I don't regret it and I cherish the memories of him with his little thumb in his mouth.

KBowen715 · November 2014

mary97 said:
We are also on team not worry about it now. I started to try to fight it, give her paci when she was sucking her thumb but decided that learning to self soothe is a good thing for her right now. She usually only does it when sleeping now or when she's upset. She will still take a paci when offered so I'm not too concerned yet. It'll be something I will try to break her out of if she's still doing it at about a year. For now, her ability to self soothe is a good thing.

The only think I'm trying to break regarding thumb sucking is that she decided this weekend she was going to suck her thumb during meal times. She gets a spoon full of food and in goes the thumb.

She's learning how to swallow solids on her own- sucking after bites is a great compensatory method while learning.

bridetobe9132013 · November 2014

DD just started putting the thumb in the mouth inbetween bites also but she has been eating solids for almost 2 months.

Meg&Austin · November 2014

I was pretty worried about thumb sucking. But then you question well push and binky and break that habit , which you can take away, or deal with the thumb when the right time comes. My choice was to push the binky since I can take that away. I started putting mittens on her at night took a couple weeks but she started taking her binky at bedtime and we ditched the mittens.

I say do what u feel is best. is one really better over the other who knows!

momthatlifts · November 2014

Haven't been able to check this for a few days. As of now, I'm still letting her do it. Like others have said, it's what soothes her (it's cute too

). If she is able to replace her paci with her thumb then soothe herself back to sleep then I'm definitely OK with it. I don't know if I will let her go to 4 or 5 years old. If I can I will work on getting her to quick.

danabsd · November 2014

No advice. I have a finger sucker. At least 20% are constantly in her mouth.

(

momthatlifts · November 2014

Yes ^ all of that. I can't even get a decent picture anymore without fingers in the mouth.

britab · November 2014

I teach Spanish to kindergartens and there definitely are some thumb suckers.

allrightmeow · November 2014

becole42 said:

When she gets a little older, they sell nasty tasting stuff you paint on the finger nail to break the habit.

We have tried all of those things with no success. DD just turned 6. Her thumb gets all dry and cracked in the winter and we still can't get her to stop.

yvanehtnioj · November 2014

I think the latest research shows that the risk of it messing up teeth is low. Henry sucks his 2 middle fingers and I'm thrilled he self soothes. If she still does it when she's much older, her peers will probably tease her and it will work itself out

momthatlifts · November 2014

I heard about the stuff you put on their thumbs. It kind of reminds me of the horses we would have that we tried to keep from cribbing. They had all this stuff you could rub on the wood that didn't taste good for them and it was supposed to help. Sometimes it did sometimes it did. She only sucks her thumb at night in bed. Or if she is upset but most of them time it's just at bed time

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