My 16 month old is an avid thumb sucker. The thing is constantly implanted in her mouth. It has been ever since she was a few months old. The skin on her thumb is constantly cracked because it's always wet! I'm noticing that her teeth are starting to stick out too. I really want to break the habit NOW, but I don't really know how to. When I see it in her mouth, I tell her to take it out and she usually does, but it goes right back in there a few seconds later. She sucks her thumb all night too. I don't want her to have issues with her teeth or speech when she gets older. What's the best way of breaking the habit now?
My dad used to put a band-aid on my little sister's thumb... one of the cloth ones that really stick. Just put a couple drops of something she really doesn't like (my dad used soy sauce) and it will taste so bad she won't want it in her mouth.
My daughter is older (5 years) but has sucked her forefinger and middle finger from the time she was born till not too long ago. Last month she burned her fingers on the fireplace :( and we had to keep the fingers bandaged for 2 weeks. Because they were bandaged, she could not suck on them, and now she is cured of the habit. Maybe you could try wrapping her thumb up for a few weeks?
Since she's still so young maybe try replacing the thumb with a paci... at least when you are ready to get rid of the paci you can toss it, you cant toss a thumb. I think that is one of the reasons pacifiers were invented, there would be a lot more thumbsuckers out there if we didnt have them.
I agree with Jessica's answer, sometimes you have to train by using the Pavlov's Dog maneuver .... a stern tap along with the "NO" will most likely do the trick but may take awhile.
Maybe put a mitten on her hand during the day for a little while. You probably just need to get creative and try all sorts of things. I'm sure you will have all of those tools after this post is up for a few hours.
If a child needs to suck they will find something to suck. It's too bad she didn't take to a pacifier...they are more shaped to help with the teeth issue.
I don't know of anything that will help this issue. We did everything we could to get my daughter to stop sucking her fingers. She has a recessed jaw, her bottom teeth were bent backwards, her finger is permanently bent crooked, etc.... She was taken off the bottle too soon due to falling off the cough onto her playtex bottle and knocking out her front tooth. She almost immed. started the sucking.
We took her to get braces at the right age but the doc said the only way to fix her teeth was to break her jaw in several places and put a device that would cause her bones to be spaced apart and then bone would grow in and fill the empty spaces. That was the only way to fix the damage done by sucking her finger.
It is a inborn reflex that is a need at this young age and cannot be "broken". It is part of her natural instincts to suck. If you want her to not suck her finger try giving her something else to suck until the impulse is past. It may be years before the urge is gone.
You need to keep her hands busy doing other things.....figure out if she puts it in out of boredom, comfort or whatever and find alternative sources for the comfort, etc.
Docs will tell you that they will "grow out of it", but they will ALSO tell you that they need to keep their hands busy.....playing, etc. They also tell you NOT to scold them if it goes in, but rather tell them how proud you are of them when they are choosing an alternative.
My oldest will be 10 on 12/5 & STILL sucks her thumb when she sleeps. She started early too ~ never wanted a pacifier. We tried all the tricks ~ yucky tasting polish (specially made to stop thumb suckers), band-aids, & anything else yucky we could put on (that obviously wouldn't harm her). We bought a $40 device to put on her hand, didn't work. The dentist put a device in her mouth for 4 months, didn't work. She now has braces so I hope she stops soon or all the $ we are paying for braces will be down the drain! My youngest is 3 & is the same way. Her thumb would be dry & raw. We used what women put on their breasts when breast feeding ~ I think it was Vitamin E ~ so it wouldn't harm her as a newborn.
I would talk to the dentist when she's a bit older & get advice from him/her. Good luck!
Thumb suckers can be remarkably stubborn children. They need a strong incentive to stop. Positive reinforcement always helps. Consider using a reward system, like a sticker for every time she is caught not sucking her thumb. Also consider a substitute soother - a lovey, a teddy bear, whatever, to distract her from using her thumb and to also assist in soothing her. Unfortunately, while her speech is likely not affected, her teeth are already likely affected. Nothing you can do about that now except keep it from getting worse.
I don't find that negative reminders help at all - the attraction to thumb suck is just too strong, so I would not waste my time with stuff like that.
When I was a kid, I was an avid thumb sucker - and NOTHING kept me from doing it. My parents did the nail polish thing, vinegar, tabasco sauce (which actually resulted in the opposite effect - I ended up loving the hot sauce, LOL!) and my parents eventually gave up and left me alone. At five, I finally stopped cold turkey becuase I was getting teased at school for it. Go figure.
At twenty, I got braces.
no advice just some perspective...count yourself lucky its just her thumb, my son can fit his whole fist in his mouth and is always chewing on it
They sell a product that you paint on like nail polish that tastes terrible. Paint it on when she's asleep. when she wakes up, she may try to suck it once or twice, but it is a definite deterrent. It worked immediately for my daughter and she was almost three.
