lovinmyboys Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 My youngest 2 boys will be turning 4 and 6 in a few months and I would like to start working on eliminating thumb sucking. Any suggestions? They both suck both of their thumbs, so if one of their thumbs is unavailable they suck the other one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erica in OR Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 I tried many of the suggestions you can find on the internet with my second dd. None worked. She had to decide that she was done and then just do it. I put a lot of energy and worry into it, with no real results. She's a teenager now, with no teeth problems and doesn't suck her thumb. :) One of my four year olds now sucks her thumb. I'm not doing anything about it. She sucks it less than she used to and I figure she'll eventually stop. Erica in OR 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenaj Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 One of my sons didn't suck his thumb, but sucked his index and middle fingers. When he was about 5 or 6, we encouraged him to stop and he mastered it during the day but continued to suck at night. One day, I hit on the idea of putting bandaids on his fingers at night (and when we ran out of bandaids a small strip of duct tape). We knew it wouldn't stop him from sucking but we told him that it would remind him not to suck . . . there may also have been a discussion that sucking on duct tape not being good for your health - LOL!). Anyway, it took about two weeks of consistency and then it was done. I don't think it's a foolproof method, but he was ready and he was old enough to be reasoned with about the damage he was doing to his teeth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneezyone Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 I have a cousin who's 37 and still has a wrinkly thumb. She's gainfully employed, a parent two times over, and happy. I was a finger sucker and my parents tried everything, hot sauce, threats, spikes on my retainer. The only thing that worked was time and desire (on my part alone). It will happen, or not, naturally. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 (edited) The dentist told my eldest son he needed to stop, being a typical oldest child, he did. He struggled with falling asleep the for awhile, but he never sucked his thumb again. The dentist suggested having him wear a mitten and using gentle reminders, but we never needed that. Corrected unfortunate typo:) Edited December 30, 2015 by Rach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 I wouldn't bother. Eventually they will stop. Or not. I had a friend in high school who did it occasionally. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 The dentist told my eldest son he needed to stop, being a typical oldest child, he did. He struggled with falling asleep the for awhile, but he never sucked his thumb again. The dentist suggested having him wear a kitten and using gentle reminders, but we never needed that. Huh..what is a kitten? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto3innc Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Here's what worked with my daughter at around age 5. We first made the rule that she once sucked her thumb at night. Note, that she was on board with working on stopping. If she wasn't, it would have been a totally different deal. So we nicely reminded her during the day if she was and after a couple week or so we got it contained to just night time. Night time was harder. We first worked on bed time, but she would still end up with her thumb in her mouth most of the night. What ended up working for her was to wear gloves while she slept. This totally stopped her. She wore them for a month or so at night? That was it for her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 The dentist suggested having him wear a kitten and using gentle reminders, but we never needed that. I'm sure you meant "mitten" but I busted out laughing at the thought of wearing a kitten. It must work since I don't suck my thumb and I usually have at least one cat sleeping on/near me at night. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellen Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 My mom tried all of the tricks on me but none of them worked. I stopped when I wanted to. The dentist told me I would need braces if I didn't stop. It made me want to stop and I did. I was around five years old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Girls' Mom Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 I bribed my twins, but I think I was lucky and just timed it right. I told them they could buy anything at Toys R Us if they would stop. I REALLY lucked up when all they wanted was a Polly Pocket..lol. They were 3.5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Huh..what is a kitten?Typo! Should be mitten. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest2 Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 We painted some vile tasting stuff on the thumb nails. It worked well, but we just let it go until 5 or 6. He probably didn't need it to self- soothe anymore, it was just a habit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 I have a cousin who's 37 and still has a wrinkly thumb. She's gainfully employed, a parent two times over, and happy. I was a finger sucker and my parents tried everything, hot sauce, threats, spikes on my retainer. The only thing that worked was time and desire (on my part alone). It will happen, or not, naturally. This. My parents tried everything. Nothing worked. I finally stopped around age 10 on my own. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bettyandbob Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Dd sucked her thumb. We tried a lot of things. One thing was and expensive thumb guard. Thumb guard did NOT work. Nothing worked. I remember when she was 4 telling her that no one inf Ms. X 's ( preschool teacher) would be sucking their thumb. She replied "yes someone will, because I will." I kept trying for a little while after that. She gave it up on her own between ages 7 and 8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tess in the Burbs Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 (edited) Mavala. Nail stuff, but it works. We did lots of expensive things and only Mavala worked. Wish I had found it earlier Edited December 30, 2015 by tess in the burbs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 My dentist said he didn't care. It tips the palette and when she stops it will tip back. Definitely true in my case. I remember being so offended at the pressure to stop and family getting on me about it so much. I'm still a bit disgruntled about it. It has slowly lessened. I generally only see it during math, and I can see the need for occasional self-soothing there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 Typo! Should be mitten. Ah! That just came to me. Maybe she meant mitten! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewe Mama Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 I ordered a couple of special glove type things that fastened on with Velcro for Alvin's thumb and finger sucking. I think it was call the Thinger. I just googled and couldn't find it, but I came up with something similar called the Glovey Huggey. The Thinger worked like a charm for Alvin. He stopped completely within two weeks of using it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyGF Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 (edited) I had two thumb suckers and we had a long of variety in how they stopped. First, dd1 stopped at 4 voluntarily when I gave her a daily supply of 10 gummy bracelets. I'd take away one each time she sucked her thumb. She really wanted them, so she stopped after a few days. She was 4. Then, a month later, we moved across country by car and she started sucking again (out of boredom?). She no longer cared about the bracelets in our new house, and went on thumb sucking. Four months later we used Malava Stop and it worked wonders. She is incredibly sensitive to tastes and smells, so the first time she sucked her thumb she threw up. She spent the rest of the morning soaking her hands. She only sucked once more after that, and by the evening was cured. I thought Malava Stop was a cure-all, but dd2 didn't mind the taste and just sucked it off. Eventually, I decided we could stop nighttime thumb sucking as a route to stopping thumb sucking. So I started putting socks on dd2's hands every night and actually taping them on around her wrist with packing tape. This cured nighttime thumb sucking (though her sister had just sucked through the socks). Finally, positive peer pressure got her to stop during the day. Her best friend got a wart on her sucking fingers and wore a band-aid. She didn't like sucking the band-daid. I told dd2, "Your best friend doesn't suck her fingers anymore, so you need to stop, too." And she did. My take-home is that kids are different. Try various approaches. Realize you may need to try a bunch of things. And time it well so you don't have to redo it. Emily ETA: DD1 found Malava Stop so traumatizing that she still remembers it at the age of 9. I saw her chewing her fingernails the other day and said, "Hmm, maybe we need to buy more Malava Stop." She stopped without another reminder. Edited December 31, 2015 by EmilyGF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyGF Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 Mavala. Nail stuff, but it works. We did lots of expensive things and only Mavala worked. Wish I had found it earlier It worked wonders for my oldest dd but did nothing for my second dd. Kids differ. Emily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplejackmama Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 This. My parents tried everything. Nothing worked. I finally stopped around age 10 on my own. Well this encourages me. Maybe my 10 year old will stop, soon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 My parents tried the bad tasting stuff on my thumb. I soaked it off in a glass of water by my bed so I could suck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 Well this encourages me. Maybe my 10 year old will stop, soon. Probably. Although my father says my mom still sucks her thumb when she's sick, in her sleep :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 (edited) DD sucked her thumb until she was almost 13, I sucked my thumb until I was about the same age, and DS (11) still sucks his thumb. We all outgrew it without any pressure, on our own. I'd be patient and let time take care of it; they're young and it's a relatively harmless habit. The dentist told us it's bone structure that determines whether or not a kid needs braces, not thumb sucking. Edited December 31, 2015 by reefgazer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 We used the expensive thumb guards. DS was young, but ultimately did want to stop, I think. That makes a difference, IMO. It took longer than the 30 days, but not more than 60. We had a college-aged former babysitter that said she was glad we were doing it when he was young because she still sometimes sucked her thumb when she was really stressed (at night) and wished it wasn't such an ingrained self-soothing habit. Now, on the other hand, I've been unable to break the fingernail chewing habit for a couple of mine .... maybe I need a separate thread on that one! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hypatia. Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 My middle son (5) is a thumb sucker. He wants to stop but he can't, says it just "automatically" goes in his mouth when he's not thinking about it. He's also SPD, sensory-seeking. He's in speech therapy for apraxia and the displacement of his teeth from sucking his thumb just make things more difficult. We used the expensive thumb guards. DS was young, but ultimately did want to stop, I think. That makes a difference, IMO. It took longer than the 30 days, but not more than 60. This is what we bought also. I showed it to him on Amazon first and he said he wanted to try it. It's taking a long time, he wore it for a few weeks and then we stopped. He was fine for the first few days afterward, but then started back up so he's back in the T-guard again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 My middle son (5) is a thumb sucker. He wants to stop but he can't, says it just "automatically" goes in his mouth when he's not thinking about it. He's also SPD, sensory-seeking. DS#2 has sensory issues. :coolgleamA: I looked at the thumb guards as being a 'help' to remind him not to suck because he (mostly) wanted to stop. (There were times, just like those of us who try to eat healthily, that he just wanted his fix & to heck with the long-or-short-term goal!) IMO, the t-guards were expensive, but the company stands behind them. They offered to replace our chewed-up ones free of charge with new ones if we needed more time to get him to stop sucking. They didn't want safety issues, but I liked that their customer service reached out with the offer. Motivation is the big factor, IMO. If the kid wants to stop, help them stop. If they don't want to stop, it will be much harder to get them to quit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovinmyboys Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 Thanks. You have all given me some ideas. I normally lean more toward letting them outgrow things on their own, but my DS turning 6 does things while he is sucking his thumb that are pretty socially inappropriate. He never does them when he isn't sucking his thumb. He still uses thumb sucking to self soothe, so we will need to find a different way to do that. He is sorta motivated to stop sucking his thumb, but not fully. I think my DS3 will stop fairly easily, so I figured I would try to work with them at the same time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 True, I didn't want to stop. At all. But, I only sucked at night, never during the day or when walking around. Just in my bed at night. If you can't get him on board to quit, maybe you can get him to agree to try to limit it to nightime only. That would be less scary in my mind, and would solve the socially acceptable issue as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 My dd wanted to stop but couldn't. She asked for help, so I got her that bitter nail polish, and that worked. She was 3. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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