Thumb Sucking in 5 Year Old

She has to find something else that makes her feel good. Something that no one is going to point the finger at and say,"Oh, look at that!" Maybe it will help if she thinks of her favorite place to be or her favorite foods. If it makes you feel any better my niece is a mother of a 9 month old and she still sucks her thumb at 20 yrs. old. She's never had any real big problems with her mouth though just some teeth that came in crooked.

My daughter is 8 years old and she still sucks her thumb. She does it mostly in her sleep - never at school or during the day. So I can't really point it out to her or bribe her if she's not conscious. The bandaides and pepper tasting polish didn't work either. So she is going to be fitted with a "roller" that is attached to the roof of her mouth. It's a little wire with a ball that she can roll with her tongue instead of sucking her thumb. Plus the roller is in the way so she can't get her thumb into her mouth. So if the behavior manifests itself in sleep mode, don't worry, as there are apparatus' out there for these particular issues.

Have you tried putting a bandaid on it? This worked for my son. He will be turning five the end of June. His thumb was his everything!! He happened to get a scrape on it and was so mortified that it was hurt that we had to put a bandaid on it. Then we had to wrap it in an orange towel, so he couldn't see the bandaid. Next came putting bandaids on all his fingers, and mine, and my husbands......We went through about two boxes of bandaids in three days, but it worked. My husband complained about the bandaids, but it was either the cost of bandaids or the cost of dental repair. He was three and a half at the time.

My sister-in-law also used nail painting as a reward, and it worked for her daughter. I can't wait to see what will work for my daughter who is two.

Good luck.

My folks made me stop sucking my thumb when I was a kid and what worked really well was to put a band-aid on my thumb. It didn't feel good to have my thumb in my mouth, and was a reminder (but not a yucky-one, like the bad tasting stuff). The thing is that she has to buy into it too, or she'll just take the band-aid off. Hopefully it would get it out of her mouth long enough that you can do some other kind of reward chart, though. You could also try substituting something else when she would normally have her thumb - a lollipop for instance.

Good luck! I still remember having to give it up, and now both of my kids are constant thumbsuckers - I'm not looking forward to this on our end!

My daughter sucked her thumb until she was seven. We tried all the things you have and none of it worked. The closest we came was giving her one special place in the house that she was allowed to suck her thumb. That worked for a few days. Then my husband came up with another plan that worked. My daughter absolutely loves horses and some of the state quarters have horses on them, so every day she went without sucking her thumb, she got a "horse quarter". If she was caught sucking her thumb, she had to give us one of her quarters back. After 1 week she had stopped. See if you can do something similar to that. When she has to give back a reward it may start to mean something for her.

Hi Kelli,

I feel like you answered your own question, in a way. Now, I'm a former thumb-sucker, I'll confess that. And I didn't stop until I was 7 or 8 years old. And I'll tell you that none of the "cures" or reverse psychology people tried on me worked. What worked was not "stopping the thumb sucking". What worked was stopping what was causing the thumb sucking.

Babies have been shown sucking their thumbs in the womb, so it's not fair to think it's a decision she made and she can stop anytime. It's also simplistic to think that we can know all the reasons someone sucks her thumb. However, you've identified times and situations that cause her to suck her thumb. For example, when she's being loud and you ask her to be quiet. Instead of thumb sucking to stay quiet, why not give her quiet activities to do? When she's "mad, sad, or anxious", there are other ways she can express that or relieve tension. Why not brainstorm coping mechanisms with her and then remind her the next time she gets mad, "Hey, I know you're mad right now. What did we talk about doing when you feel mad? Coloring a picture of why you're mad? Go ahead." That kind of thing.

Thumb sucking, as a habit, is hard to break. So don't treat it as the problem. Treat it as a symptom, which is what it actually is.

My daughter is a 3.5 year old who also excessively sucks her thumb. I tried everything you did, plus the bad tasting medicine. It did not phase her at all. Dentist said the same thing, her teeth are bucked in the front, etc. etc.

I recently started putting sports tape on her thumbs as their "outfits" for the day. She talks to her thumbs now and they talk to each other. I put the tape loosely of course and the treat for not sucking her thumb (and she does not with the tape) is at night time, the tape comes off and she can suck her thumb all she wants. She receives a big hug and smile when the tape comes off to show her she did a good job during the day and mommy is not mad that she is now sucking her thumb.

It eliminates the problem during the day and, truthfully, at night it does fall out when they sleep, so the time is limited. It does make a difference. This all comes from a thumb sucking mom who did not stop at night until well into the double digits of age!!

Good luck :)

B.

Hi Kelli,

I am 54 years old and I sucked my thumb until the orthodontist put some type of device in my mouth that had a tiny point that was on the roof of my mouth that would not let me get my thumb in there. I could not feel it with my tongue unless I wanted to, so it was really tiny, all it did was prevent me from sucking my thumb. And it was the only thing that worked. I also had the awful tasting stuff put on my thumb and I sucked it right off. And made the promises, etc. She can't stop on her own, it's her way of comforting herself.

I was fine after they put that in my mouth, I don't remember any trauma or anything at all from that little dagger. But everyone's different, you know, so who knows how she will respond. I just wanted to give you my experience.

I will advise you to stop making her promise to stop, she can't. And why set her up to fail? You and your doctor or dentist will need to come up with another solution, just please don't ask her to do it on her own, she really can't. She will stop at some point on her own, but it will be when she decides she doesn't need that anymore. And maybe going to school will give her the incentive to do it, but it really has to be on her own terms. I would mention to her that the other kids may not understand why she is sucking her thumb and may make fun of her. Although I never cared about that either..lol.

Well, good luck, I'm sure you'll get some helpful responses.

J.

I put bandaids on my sons thumb and this stopped him.

Hi Kelli,

I know they make an apparatus that you can put on your child's thumb and hand (link included) that might help you out.

Good luck.

http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...

Have you thought about talking to her about why she sucks her thumb and what it would take to get her to stop? Maybe the 2 girls could work together to help each other break their habits. Is there anything stressful going on at home to cause them to have these habits? I agree with the other Mom about trying a substitute..what about gum? Personally I find being really noisy with a piece of gum to be a great stress reliever!! :)

It seems as though you need a two part solution:
To stop the thumb-sucking behaviour, but also to simultaneously substitute a more acceptable self-calming behavior.

My daughter used to kiss the backs of her own hands to comfort herself. When she got to pre-k she had a particularly insensitive teacher who forbade her to do so, allegedly for sanitary reasons (?!). So... She started biting/sucking (and bruising) her arms instead, even out of school.

Eventually I found a wonderful substitute/solution in the form of a chewable bracelet called "Chewlery". It looks like old fashioned, curly telephone cord, is safe for mouthing (even aggressive chewing) and comes in bright colors- one to match every outfit.

I found it in a catalog called "Abilitations" which specializes in aids for all kinds of disabilities (great resource for ADHD, Autism Spectrum, etc.). I'm not intimating your daughter has any issue other than the need to calm herself in a safe, acceptable manner; my daughter was in the same position.

Anyway, she wore these for the first few weeks of kindergarten and soon enough the behavior, then the bracelets just faded away. Occasionally, I'll see one of her dolls or stuffed animals wearing one; otherwise they stay tucked in a plastic bag in her sock drawer.

You can shop Abilitations online too- They have all kinds of really neat stuff. Your daughter might like to choose something with you that she thinks she might help her break her habit, but still bring her comfort.

My daughter and I chose several things together, which I think helped her feel empowered as opposed to having another rule imposed upon her by adults. The whole process became a confidence-building exercise, which is what was needed to begin with. When she was ready, the behavior disappeared. A lot like potty training now that I think of it!

My daughter was a very intense finger sucker. I got her to stop by having her dentist tell her what will happen to her teeth if she continues (once the permanent teeth come in, the only way to correct her smile would be to do surgery...sometimes that means wiring the jaws shut for 6 weeks) and by putting band-aids on her fingers during the day to remind her not to put them into her mouth. At night we put a sock over her hand. Both of these we knew she could remove, but the point was for me to stop nagging and for her to take responsibility of her actions.

As a former thumb sucker I understand this situation. I sucked my thumb until fifth grade! My parents tried EVERYTHING. Gloves, nasty tasting stuff, putting stuff like bandaids on my thumbs. My brothers tried putting tabasco sauce or beer on my thumbs (I am the youngest of 6 with a 15 year gap between me and the oldest). Nothing worked for me until the teacher in fifth grade started to call me on it in class (public humiliation in a way). She never let the kids tease me or laugh or such. She explained to the class it was a habit that was very hard to break and making fun of me would make it worse. She would just say "Fran, thumb" when she caught me doing it. Most of the time you don't realize you are doing it.

My sister put a thumb guard on her daughter to stop her. It is a big plastic thing that goes around the thumb that makes it too big to put in the mouth to suck on.

I hope you find a way to help your daughter out so she doesn't make it to my stage. One thing I noticed with my kids vs. my sister's kids with the thumb sucking was a)I never made a big deal out of it (my sister and her hubby would always be trying to take the thumb out of the mouth) and b)I nursed my kids a lot longer than my sister. My kids don't suck their thumbs while my sister's do.

I sucked my thumb when I was younger and what worked for me was that I REALLY wanted my ears pierced. My parents told me I couldn't get it done until I completly stopped sucking my thumb. It took a lot of will power, but about 6 months later my ears were pierced and I never went back to sucking my thumb. I have also heard of people putting gloves on their children to prevent them from sucking their thumbs. Good luck!