Stubborn Thumb Sucker

There is stuff I saw at Rite Aid called THUM...it's for thumb suckers and nail biters...It was $6.00 for the bottle, I believe. It's supposed to taste so bad they won't put their hands in their mouths!

I was a thumb sucker till i was 9 years old. I know this will sound nasty but my grandmother tried everything with bribing me to puting hot sauce on my hands. The only thing that worked was she taped my grandfathers dirty socks on my hands at night. I learned to relized that i was not going to put those nasty socks in my mouth. In about a week i no longer sucked my thumb.

The only advice I can think of that worked is for night time thumb sucking. If she can't sleep without her thumb, have her sleep with her hand and thumb near her mouth but not in her mouth. I guess its a security thing for her during the day. You'd think that peer pressure would get her to stop - maybe you can let her know its a habit for young kids and not older kids and see what she says? Good luck!

It appears that it is an emotional issue. Stress. Control issue perhaps as well. It seems odd that a daycare worker that sucked her thumb would be allowed to do so in a daycare setting. Thats just plain innappropriate.. When she was 5 was when she started? So she used the thumbsucking daycare worker as a role model. I think there are more issues here than mere thumb sucking. Ten years old? Why does she say she does it? Braces? Get thee to a child psychologist.

She will stop by herself when she is ready. (I bet you she doesn't suck it at school or in front of strangers) Don't let her have braces though until she has really stopped.

I'm loath to admit that I was a thumb sucker until I was 9 years old. My parents tried everything including that awful tasting stuff you paint on a kid's thumb (I just switched fingers to avoid it).

What ultimately stopped me from sucking was braces. My mouth hurt so much in the beginning that sucking was painful and the metal in my mouth cut my thumb. For lack of a better suggestion maybe get the braces put on sooner if you're planning to get them either way.

I'd love to send you a photo of my niece who is now 18, who had a surgery this past summer for her thumbsucking. Thousands of dollars later...this issue still bugs me! Her parents made no effort to stop her, for they wanted her to "stop on her own..." We would go over there when she was 15 and she would have her thumb in her mouth, trying to cover it up with her hand! I mean come on! She lisps, her teeth stuck out and she looked like a baby. She got made fun of at school and had hardly any friends--now I'm not sure if the thumb sucking had to do with that, but I'm sure it didn't help. Now at 18 she's recovering from having the doctor break her jaw apart to readjust its growth pattern--we have to wait to see if it worked. Let your daughter read this and see if it helps. Good luck to you!

My husband and I have confined thumb sucking to the car seat and bedroom for our 3 year-old daughter. However, if she sucks more than that, we propose very spicy hot sauce on her thumb.

Not getting her the braces is another good option. Don't waste your money.

Hi N.-- First off let me say congrads on your graduation!!!!!!!!
Your said your daughter is 10 and that she does actually want braces??? Refuse to get her braces if she keeps sucking her thumb.. Tell her it's not even an option for you to waste the money when she is still doing the thing that caused the problem in the first place.
She is old enough to get the concept.
I'm not sure if she is too old for a reward system or not..????
I wish you luck! And again Congrads!

I remember sucking my thumb until I was about 12. Surprising to everyone I didn't need braces. We tried everything from bitter apple,taping tongue depressors on my thumbs, wearing socks on my hands and oven mitts. Nothing worked. The bitter apple only left a horrible taste in my mouth all day (even after brushing my teeth. I always fell asleep with out needing to suck my thumb. My thumb eneded up in my mouth after I was asleep. The socks ended up on the floor and the tongue depressors all got ripped off. This happened while I was sleeping. I was so upset because I really wanted to stop. I wanted to sleep over at my friends houses and not be embarressed. So I went to stay with my Great Aunt when I was 12. She told me a story about how she went to see a "Witch Doctor" and he told her a cure for thumb sucking. Every night before I went to bed I had to say " I will not suck my thumb tonight" 25 times. ( I would sometimes say it more than that out of desperation). At the end of my week stay with her I was no longer a thumb sucker. I am not sure how this worked but it did. It is probably a confidence/mind over matter kind of thing but it did the trick. I hope this helps. Good luck!!

My 11-yr old has been sucking her index finger since birth and probably before that also (she still does it when tired or is sleeping). She needs (and will be) getting braces this year. I gave up trying once I heard the braces will prevent her from sucking. If your daughter is going to get braces anyway, why not just get them earlier? I sometimes think this is their form of comfort--she's good otherwise, so I didn't get crazy over this bad habit (of course she doesn't do it in public either).

How about nail polish? if her fingers are in her mouth no one can see her "grown up" nails. They make all kinds of little stickers and gem decals and glitter polishes. A great way for you 2 to bond would be to let her polish your nails. It helps if you take great pride in the work she did on you and show them off. Keep her hands busy doing other things too..hope this helps!

Don't know if this will help but my daughter sucked her thumb from birth and quit when she was 4 years old. It took a teacher at school to get her motivated (she said Meg was putting all her pretty teeth out of alignment and it was starting to affect her speech). Not that my husband and I had been telling her any different, but getting a teacher she respected telling her the same thing got things going. I also started a little reward system and in about 3 weeks she didn't suck her thumb anymore. She started the day with 10 pennies (you can do other variations too - I got the idea from a Berenstein Bears nail biting book) but lost a penny whenever I caught her with her thumb in her mouth. If she was able to make it through the day with at least 5 pennies left, she got a small toy reward (and the leftover pennies). Good luck!

Hi N.,
Congrats on graduating!!!
I know my brother had a problem getting my niece to stop thumb sucking - she was 5 at the time and wasnt allowed to wear nail polish until she stopped sucking her thumb. It pretty much did the job. Good luck!
P.

Hi there,

Apparently my husband was an obsessed thumb sucker until his grandmother started dipping his thumb in hot sauce. I have also heard that there is some kind of bitter substance that you can put on children's thumbs that is effective. Have you asked your pediatrician about it?

Ask your dentist about a product called Mavala Stop, or you can order online. It's about $7-11. Polish onto her nail while she sleeps. Put ot on all nails if you can get away with it. It lasts for about 3 days, but she may take it off with polish remover if she figures it out. I would do it every night until she has broken the habit. It works much better than the stuff you buy at the drug store -lasts longer and tastes MUCH worse and doesn't flake off. You can't even see it on the nail. Most important is that you don't tell her you're doing it. That will only give her the opportunity to say no and wash it off/remove it. Also, if you tell, she says no, then you do it anyway, it could cause an arguement. Good Luck!!

My advice as a former stubborn thumb sucker myself: Leave it alone. You have told her you find it unacceptable. She will give it up on her own when she is ready, probably sooner if she does not see it as a power struggle between you two. (The horror story of the girl who had to have her jaw reset is the exception to the rule). The spector of braces seems to be making it more attractive, so you might try having some current or former braces wearers tell her how unpleasant they truly are. Maybe confining it to certain times and places will help as well, but try and back off for now to see what happens.

My guess is that she will not stop until she is good and ready. My mother tried everything, from coloring my thumb green and telling me it was poision, covering it with pepper oil to a reward system for not sucking my thumb. Nothing worked, until one day when I was eight, I suddenly realised I had stopped. All on my own, for no reason at all.

A couple of home remedies that worked with my oldest daughter are clear nail polish, pepper and hot sauce. You should try all three to see which one worked. My oldest daughter, now 10, stopped sucking her fingers a couple of years ago. None of the stuff I bought in the store helped. She ended up getting used to the taste of clear polish, so that didn't work. I eventually listened to my mom and switched between pepper and hot sauce, going back and forth. That only took a couple of weeks. This is especially good if you can't afford the stuff in the stores anyway.

Like many others who have responded, I sucked my thumb until I was 12 or so. My parents tried everything, and I did not care how bad it tasted. The comfort aspect was better than the awful taste was bad - if that makes sense. They would also punish me, but I would just suck my thumb when they were not around or when I was in bed so that did not help.

I never needed braces and my teeth are very straight, if that is any comfort.

One thing I can say is that it is NOT comforting to suck your thumb with long, square, fake nails. It HURTS the roof of your mouth. You can find these in a drug store, or go to a manicurist.

At 10 long nails may cause problems in gym class though, so you may want to wait until school is out for summer if you decide to try this method.

Good luck

Hi N.
First off congratulations on your graduation! I know how hard it is trying to finish school with children. My 12 soon to be 13 yr old still sucks he thumb also. I have tried everything! Vinegar, hot sauce, you name it and nothing worked! I truly believe that they will just stop when they are ready. Not unless you constantly pull her thumb out of her mouth every single time I really don't think there is much you can do. She now only does it at home - I think she is embarassed around the boys, - and when she is sleepy. My sister and my uncle who is close in age to me also sucked their thiumbs so It really may just run in the family. i don't think there is any one solution. G. L.

I sucked my thumb until age 13, then all of a sudden I stopped, I don't really know why, except it was during a time when Ihad to share a room with my sister and I learned to like to fall asleep when it was dark in my room. Then I did not need it to fall asleep. However, in times of stress, I sometimes wake up and find my thumb in my mouth in the middle of the night. My dtr sucked her thumb, I felt guilty about trying to get her to stop, but at the age of 5 we felt it was time. We tried all the different nasty tasting stuff, even the stuff you get from the pharmacist, they did not work. I got a thumb splint used for broken thumbs and rewarded her when she kept it on and did not suck. I am now struggling with the same issue with my son. He is starting to get an overbite, but worse, he has a rash on his face from it. He says when he turns 4 (in a month) it will only be for nighttime. And I know when I check on him in the night, he does not have it in his mouth all night long, it is really how he falls asleep. So, maybe some way to help her fall asleep if that is the issue, if not it could be a security thing. Good Luck, it is a hard habit to break. On a positive note, you are making good changes in your life, and once things are looking up for both of you she may feel more secure and be able to learn how to break this habit, you are setting a great example!

Hi Nichole,
I can empathize with you as my daughter was 11 when she quit sucking her thumb. And yes we did the braces thing etc. That was some time ago but I tried all sorts of things. I fed her babyfood, I used the deterent on her thumbs but at 11 years old, she could just wash it off. We tried rewards for x number of days she did not suck her thumb and of course at night we were helpless. Finally, I told her that if I saw her sucking her thumb like a toddler I would have to slap her hands like a toddler. She did hate that and she did stop at that point and then we were able to put the braces on her teeth. Aside from that my daughter was a great kid and did not give us any trouble but I think the thumb was a constant security for her as we were a military family and she was always faced with moving. The thumb never left her. In retrospect, I don't see it as such a big deal except that she ruined her bite and the orthodonture took longer than we hoped.
M.

N. don't despair my sis sucked her thumb until she was 11 for the same reason she started to need braces and before they put them on her orthodontist put in this device in her mouth that basically had metal rods coming down from the roof of ther mouth so that she couldn't put her thumb in her mouth. I believe it is called a "habit breaker" It was inside her mouth so you wouldn't see it from the outside and of course it wasn't hurting her it was just to prevent her from being able to nest her thumb in her mouth and suck!!! I don't remember how long did she have it on before they put the braces but it was all part of the treatment and the cost. It definitely cured her from it and she definitely has a beautiful smile. Good luck!

O.