Thumb Sucking - Milwaukee, WI

YES! break that bad habit now! My Dr. told me not to worry about my daughters thumb sucking, he said infants and toddlers use thiumb sucking as a comfort item and most grow out of the need befor it does any permanant damage. Well i now have a 10 year old that needs jaw realignment, braces, and possable wiring and she STILL sucks her thumb in her sleep! It has become a bad habbit that she now does unconsiously not because she wants to (you need to understand that she is very embarressed and does NOT want to be a closet thumb sucker) I wish i would have gone with my gut (and mothers advise) and not listened to my DR about this issue.
Good luck

I only have one child that sucked his thumb and he stopped conciously sucking it himself when he was in first grade. He did, however, continue to suck it at night (unaware he was doing so) while asleep. Lucky for us his teeth are almost completely straight all on their own (he's in his 20's now). My daughter used a pacifier for two years. She had to have braces. Go figure.

I probably shouldn't admit this, but I sucked my thumb WELL into gradeschool...my parents and dentist tried EVERYTHING. Cutting my thumbnail short (so it would feel funny), bitter polish, bandaids, etc. Unfortunately, NONE of these worked. It took some good old fashioned peer pressure and teasing in school for me to stop on my own. If I had to deal with this with my own kids, I think I'd start with ignoring, then limiting where/how long allowed to suck the thumb. If they've got to go into another room and be away from all the "fun" they may stop. (It worked with the nuk w/my youngest!) Then, I'd probably try the tactics that failed with me to see if they'd work on my own kids. They WERE deterrents, but didn't really STOP it for me. (I found ways around it!) If it's any consolation, they probably won't be going to college sucking their thumbs (or having a blankie or nuk or whatever it is for them!) :)
Hang in there!
C.

First of all, don't worry. They are so young and if they are still sucking their thumb at 5 or 6 there are things you can do. I have heard my patients say they put something sour, hot or bitter on the thumb to stop the habit. This doesn't work so well, for most kids. What I tell my patients is getting fitted for a device in the mouth that pricks their thumb when they put it in their mouth. This also works for tongue thrusters, this one is called a tongue spur. It sounds inhumane, but works. Breaks that habit. Talk to your dentist.

I'm having the same problem with my 2 year old daughter. She has been sucking her thumb since she was in my belly but now not only her teeth but her jaw bone is out of alignment. At our last dentist visit I was told to put an end to it so that she won't need major work done later. I don't recommend tobasco sauce or anything like that because it would be very painful if it got into her eyes. The only thing I've ever heard of working is taping up the hand. It seems so radical - my daughter went berserk when we did it but it's the only way her thumb stays out of her mouth. A friend of mine had to do this with her 2 year old son because a blister on his thumb became infected. For three days she had to endure tantrums and crazy behaviour but once the time was up, he never sucked his thumb again. I hope it works successfully for us!

Good luck!

I would definately be worried... My neighbor is over and was reading this with me and said Copy them. She says if you copy their behavior it will stop. I know my friends put this liquid stuff on thier childs thumb that tasted bad and that worked I don't know where you buy it at though.

i would put somefin that taste nasty under there finger nails.. i told my daughter that is 9 as we caught her a couple of times sucking her thumbs that if she kept it up i would put tabosco sauce under her finger nails.. i havnt caught her after that.. good luck

Well as a mother of ten, I've had my rounds with thumbsucking and I know ignoring it and hoping it will go away is NOT the answer. Finally my now 19 year old daughter quit at 13 or 14 because the percursor to braces was an expander from the orthodontist across the top of her mouth. She'd sucked so hard and so much that her mouth had narrowed too much. The expander removed the suctionability...she had to quit. Now my 7 yr. old daughter still sucks her thumb, even at school, so we've gone to spraying that thumb with perfume before she heads out the door. I've spent $150 on two thumb guards for her from the orthodontists and she would slip her thumb out of them at night and suck her thumb while she slept. The perfume seems to be the best route so far for us anyway.