How to Stop Thumb-sucking!

What finally worked for me was when we had my 4 year olds dentist appt. The dentist (who wasn't worried yet about it hurting his teeth) said "I would like you to stop sucking your thumb before it starts hurting your big boy teeth". He stoppped pretty much cold turkey. It really surprised me.

When he goes to bed wrap an ace bandage around the thumb (not too tight) but he will not like the texture. I work for an ortho and I've heard him suggest that. Luckly neither one of mine were thumb suckers.

I am not a big believer in stopping thumb sucking. It is a self soothing mechanism. If the child is stressed, he needs it and will give it up when he is no longer stressed or finds other outlets.
Sometimes, it is just boredom, if so, try and get him interested in something else. Ask him to wash his hands after any activity like petting the animal as he puts his hands in his mouth. And before touching anything you don't want his saliva on. this raises his consciousness. You can also associate it with going to bed. "You are sucking your thumb, you must be tired, go take a rest in your room." This will raise his consciousness too.
My then 4 yr old stopped when the dentist spoke to her, her sister stopped when my inlaws made fun of her and then went back to her bankie and thumb sucking until she was 10 or so. It ruined her relationship with them.
She has great teeth by the way. Each kid is different.

i know what I am about to say may start an uproar but my grand mom put hot sause on my thumb and it stopped me and i have 3 kids and 2 of which sucked there thumbs and I did the same to them but the oldest said this hot sauce taste good and my little one which was also three just sat at the table and cried cause it was on her finger... you decided what is best for your child no one wants a kid in school sucking their thumb well at least I did not My kids were broke at 3 and 5yrs of age

Good Luck and Many blessings

My oldest daughter needed help stopping the thumbsucking. She was 4 and she couldn't help it even if she wanted to. We found out about an "appliance" that a pediatric dentist could install in her mouth that would prevent her from being able to form a suction around her thumb while it helped to straighten out her bite which was affected by the thumbsucking. We went ahead with it and it worked out great. Her bite was corrected, she stopped thumbsucking right away and it didn't hurt her or bother her in any way. If you are interested and your dentist is not familiar, here is the link to our dentist when we were in Killeen. You can contact them to find out more information on the appliance and maybe if they can recommend a local provider. http://www.killeenpediatricdentistry.com