Parenting Advice for Helping Your Child to Stop Thumbsucking

I am a homeschooling mom of a daughter who is almost 11. She is still a thumb sucker. She doesn't do this in public though.

Like most parents we thought it was so cute that she was sucking her thumb. She was a late thumb sucker. She started sucking her thumb around 8mts or so. No trauma or anything happened. She had just gotten a baby doll who was able to put her thumb in her mouth my guess was she was copying the baby doll. It was cute. We took pictures the day she started sucking her thumb.

Of course we contacted the doctor and were told no need to be concerned. She would stop by the time we two like most kids do so we stopped worrying.

Well two came along and she still sucked it. We would distract her but still it was no big deal. But by the time she was 5 we started putting yucky finger nail polish on her thumb; we did sticker charts, talked to her about how she was a big girl now and didn't need to suck her thumb. We even went as far as telling her she could wear nail polish when she stopped. But nothing worked. We tried to ignore it too.

The time came to when she was 7 and talk about braces came up at a dentist visit. This opened her eyes some. I showed her photos of kid's teeth who sucked their thumbs and again we tried the painting of her thumb with yucky stuff, tied a baby sock on her thumb at night, painted her finger nails with pretty polish to distract her and went as far as punishment.

She got braces at 9yrs old for a year. She stopped sucking her thumb some, but still we could catch her with it in her mouth while watching TV or playing computer games. We would then take away computer time for thumb sucking. My youngest son took the role of thumb sucking police as he called it. He would let us know. She was now old enough to be frustrated with herself and saw it was more of a habit and asked us to help her stop.

Today she will be 11 in less than a week. We still catch her with her thumb in mouth every now and then and I am sure she still sleeps with it in her mouth at times. I have told her this is now up to her. She controls her thumb not us. We always won't be there to remind her not to do this. It is a habit just like nail biting. I have given her a finger splint that you wear when you break your finger and it is up to her to put it on at night time to keep her thumb out of her mouth. She will tell us how she doesn't stuck her thumb if she wears it. We have left it up to her to remember to put it on.

So in my many years now of trying to break her of thumb sucking I have put it in her hands or well hand so to speak. She still loses computer time for 2wks if she if caught so she just about broken the habit of sucking it while watching TV or playing computer games.

Here is our list of what hasn't worked but we have learned from other parents that it does work with some children:

1. Thum Liquid 0.2 oz Stops thumb sucking and nail biting - we had no luck with this but it can bought at any store like Wal-mart or Kmart.

2. Sticker charts - simply print out a calendar on your computer and add let your child put a sticker on it for each day they go without sucking their thumb. My daughter had such a habit I had to break down into morning, noon and night periods.

3. Tie a baby sock loosely around your child's thumb. I wasn't to keen on this because I feared choking at night on it. Same goes for tape. When we would tape the thumb we would use Band-aid type tape because it doesn't irritate the skin as much. This is not recommended for younger children though! I'd suggest this only for children 6 & up.

4. Get a finger splint. The kind used for when you break your finger. You can get these at Wal-mart. We got the kind that adjusts with velco and didn't need tape. Make sure it is lose and not to tight. I have found this works good for my daughter to put this on at night time so she won't suck her thumb while she sleeps. But I am now letting her decide to put it on or not.

5. Let your child know that they are in control of their thumb. Watch for signs like hiding behind a pillow, a book or game. If you approach the child he or she may quickly wipe their thumb off point this out to them. This becomes such a habit that the child may not even realize or may not want to admit it.

6. My daughter is almost 11 and losing privileges works well for her. She knows if she sucks her thumb and is caught she will lose 2wks of computer time. If she complains I remind her again she is the one putting her thumb in her mouth, not me.

Most all relax. I use to worry and obsess of this. I had one woman tell me she was 26 and still sucked her thumb at night. At the time I felt like saying, "Well thanks for telling me that!" But now I see that is up to my daughter to stop. I am tired of nagging, fussing and reminding her to stop.

A good point she too has become frustrated with herself for the thumb sucking. The last time I took away her computer time she asked me why she still sucks it and I told her that she is the only one who can answer that but we will provide her with ways to stop.

What if this lasts till she is an adult? Well as my husband pointed out: She will be old enough to pay for her own braces!