How to stop dummy and thumb sucking with a 2.8yr old......

[LoveBeingAMummy]

My DD was BF and a thumb sucker. I started to give her a dummy to try and ease off the thumb sucking and to enable me to then remove the dummies. This seems to have backfired as she now just does both. I am starting to get concerned about her front teeth. I believe this is solely down to her thumb sucking as she sucks all the way down to her palm and has a very strong suck.

Just to be clear, she does not walk around all day with a dummy or her thumb in. In fact nursery, which she attends 8-1 two days a week were suprised last week when she started sucking her thumb as they had never seen it before (shes been going around 5 mths). She was only doing this as unwell and very tired.

Her communication is not the strongest of her skills. Doubled with the fact that I am going through a very stressful time, (terminally ill parent), I am not sure if now is a good time to try but how much longer can I leave it. Which also means her beloved grandad is not always around.

I know there will be people who come and say its all my fault and yes you are right, it is. I was trying to be clever and obviously I am not. I was a dummy user, I am not sure what age they went. Please rememeber this is not posted in AIBU and I am quite sensitive atm

.

anyone?

Sorry to hear about your dad.

I'm afraid I don't have experience of thumb sucking, but DS was very attached to his dummy. We left it for Father Christmas to give to the new babies, and in return, he left DS a special present on Christmas morning. He was about the same age as your DD.
He never asked for it again.

Good luck

Thanks for replying, I mentioned the dummy fairy today and she wasn't very impressed. Think it will take some getting used too.

Just seen your thread, as I am desperate to stop my son (3y.o. next month) stopping sucking his thumb. Just received a letter today from the speech therapist, which amongst all the medical mumbo-jumbo, basically said his thumb sucking has made his top teeth stick out, and made it really hard for him to form his speech properly :(. Since he was 1, I've been asking him to take his thumb out of his mouth. Now he only does it at night/nap times.

There's loads of information out there saying that you really don't need to worry until their big teeth come through, and that you need to persuade them to choose to stop (he sometimes has difficulty choosing what clothes to wear!). So my advice would be not to worry about it at the moment (especially if you're pretty stressed out anyway), unless there is a real problem. She may just suddenly stop by herself.

But if you're desperate like me, I'm gonna try putting gloves on DS tonight and just hope he doesn't take them off. Will keep you posted...

Personally, with the thumb I would wait until she has a little more understanding and do a sticker chart. This is what we did at 3.6 yrs and also got the dentist to have a chat with her. As for the dummy, I would make a rule for only at bed time.
Don't put anymore pressure on yourself. Her teeth will be ok for another 6 months.

Thanks guys.

clare40, thanks, she only has a dummy at nap time, its in her bed and she is very good at leaving it in the bed. She does also have a comforter for bedtime so wont be alone when they go.

heathers83, thanks, my dds speech is not brillant but more of a late bloomer i think. thanks for sharing what you have ben told. re the gloves, cant get dd to keep them on for more than 2 mins atm, please letme know how you get on.

The gloves (of the magic, one-size-fits-all variety) worked! He woke up two days running with them still on, and not wet from sucking! Having a break tonight, as he now has a cold, and needed a wash :o

My DS is 2.9 and has always had a dummy from about 5mths old. I have only just in the last week, told him that it is for nap times only from now on and he has, much to my surprise, accepted it so far. I don't believe it has affected his speech- he talks well but I do think his upper teeth look a little as if they have been affected by the dummy.

I really don't think you need to give yourself any added stress at the moment so if you think removing the dummy will create stress then don't do it! As you say, she only has it at nap times anyway and I can't see that having any effect on her teeth. I really don't know what to suggest about the thumb but she obviously gets comfort from it it's a normal thing to do and as the other poster says, it's probably a better idea to wait until she can understand before tackling this.

I'm sorry about your parent.