Toddler Trouble

I went through the same thing with my now 11 year old daughter. It finally came down to a thumb guard that was put in a few months ago. It just got taken out and so far I have not caught her!

I am a former thumb-sucker as well and have to say some of the things suggested sound cruel. It was my comfort and security. I actually gradually quit on my own. Thankfully my parents didn't try all kinds of things; they just let me figure it out on my own. I did need braces because of a bite issue, but so did my brother who did not suck his thumb.

My 4.5 year old still sucks her thumb. I don't mind, I don't try to get her to stop. I know she'll stop when she's ready. Both me and my dh needed braces and neither of us sucked our thumb.

what I do though is when I see that she is sucking during the day I try to figure out "why", is she bored? is she stressed? anxious? And then address the underlying issue.

Someone else posted this question a while ago, and I told them the same thing...he will quit on his own time! As a former thumb sucker, I am sorry to say that NONE of the 'tricks' worked on me. I was quite old when I finally did stop. You may find something that works for you guys, but I would just lay off for a while. He will realize on his own time that he needs to stop, probably out of some sort of embarressment. Good luck.

Along with the other post, he's not a toddler so the methods of negative attention clearly aren't working. Try a reward chart, he gets a sticker for every day he goes without sucking his thumb and after 10 or 20 stickers he gets something special.

Overall though I think it's hard when you are dealing with this kind of behavior, because it's his body and his soothing mechanism and the more you try to control it, the more he may fight back against it. I'm not clear why it bothers you so much. Yes it's bad for his teeth, but other than that what's the issue? Perhaps if you can relax and not feel so fiercely about stopping it, you can work WITH him better to help him stop. I also keep thinking of my mother, who says she did the same stuff with us (tabasco, etc) and now regrets it. The kid may need braces whether or not he sucks his thumb!

Have you tried a visual? My kiddo learns better that way. We are working on breaking her hard-core thumb sucking habit, with some improvement. We've been saying nicely: "No thumb", and holding up a picture of a thumb with a red circle/slash through it.

Sugarless chewing gum has also been helpful during the daytime. Oh, and when I see her doing something else for a stretch of time, I praise her. "Good job coloring," etc. (It's tempting to say "Good job not sucking your thumb," but then my daughter's all like, "Wait a minute, that's right! I forgot that I could be sucking my thumb. Thanks for the reminder, Mom!" and goes back to sucking again.)

Good luck!!

C.,
i realize you have many responses. but here is one more! i truley believe your child will stop on his own. i know it is frustraiting as a parent, but he is doing it for what ever reason. you can try these "things" to help but i would, if any thing just gently remind him of "no thumb". he will out grow it on his own!

Well, I would try to stop looking at him as a "4 1/2 year old toddler". He's a preschooler, and that's a whole new ball game. When my daughter tried to suck her thumb after seeing someone in her preschool class, I explained to her that only babies suck their thumbs and that she was definitely not a baby. Once I put it like that, she never tried again. You have to treat your children like their age, and also explain to them what kinds of expectations come along with their ages. Otherwise, they will see other little kids doing something and think that maybe they should be copying the behavior.

The only thing that worked for me, and I have tried everything. Is the fact that she is in daycare and they have groups Red Group (3 yr old), Purple group (4), Blue Group (5). We just kept telling her that she could not move up to the blue group until she stopped and she slowly started to make an effort to pull it out. She moved up to the blue group 2 weeks ago, and now we tell her that if she keeps sucking her thumb she will go back to purple. Amazingly it is working. Sometimes she uncontiously does it, but we gently remind her and she pulls it out.

I think you just have to find something that they really want and use that. This is the only thing that is working for us. Even her calous that she has had on her thumb since she was a baby is now starting to go away.

Someone posted this question not too long ago and I responded then by saying what my doctor told me about my 3 year old daughter sucking her thumb ~ she will stop when she's ready. Both my sister and cousin sucked their thumbs until they were almost 6 years old. My mom did EVERYTHING to get my sister to stop and nothing worked. Finally, she just stopped one day. No joke ~ my sister has beautiful teeth and never needed braces, but here I am the non-thumbsucker with braces at 37 years of age! I wouldn't worry too much about it. I know trying to make my daughter stop is only going to make her want to do it more so it doesn't even cross my mind to try to intervene. I know she'll stop when she's ready and I know your son will, too. Good luck and try not to stress too much about it. :-)

Hi C.,
I want to start by admitting I love reading mamasource for all the info. I get from the requests and responses. I usually don't respond, but I was shocked when you called your 4.5 year old a toddler. I know it's hard to admit when your baby is growing up, but a 4.5 year old needs to be treated like a preschooler and not a toddler.
I got my 5 year old daughter to quit sucking her thumb this time last year. I went to her Christmas party at preschool and noticed she constantly sucked her thumb. It really seemed to interfere with her participation in class activities. So, instead of trying silly little tricks I just treated her like a big girl and talked to her about it. I pointed out to her that none of the other children suck their thumbs and that it is for babies. I told her that if she could go a whole week at preschool and home without sucking her thumb she would get a reward on Friday after school. She knew I was really asking her teacher so she was really proud of herself each week she got a good report from the teacher. We only had to do this for about a month until she totally forgot about her old thumb sucking days.
Best of luck to you and your little one!