Committed Thumb Sucker - Age 2

[Theonlyoneiknow]

Hi,

DD has been a committed thumb sucker ever since she found her thumb at about 3 months old. It is a great comfort to her for naps and bedtime and is definitely a sleep 'prop'. She rarely sucks it when she is awake and if so will take it out when we remind her.

Night times though are a different story, the thumb is firmly in her mouth and being sucked all night long. You can see she has quite a bad over bite (?) developing and front teeth stick out (only baby teeth though). The dentist pointed it out and said will need to stop her 'soon'

I have absolutely no idea how to stop her sucking her thumb at night, she uses it to get herself to sleep and back to sleep if she wakes up in the night.

Any tips? Should I be worrying about this just yet, she is 2.3yrs old. I wasn't overly concerned until I noticed how much her top jaw sticks out over the bottom. Is the damage done now or can this be rectified?

She gets so much comfort from her thumb though :-(

Sorry not over bite, her top jaw sticks out over her lower jaw so under bite? Am confused!

You mean overbite.
Sick over her hand in the night and praise when she doesn't such it other times.

Haha if only it were that simple to just "stop". I tell you this as a commited finger sucker. I did stop at about 7-8 but the damage was done and I needed braces.

I honestly don't know what to suggest. My mum tried so many things but I was too stubborn. The bitter stuff on the nails didn't work.

Would she be bribed? E.g. a sticker chart plus mini rewards for each milestone e.g. weekly. The only thing is that she takes her thumb every where so tricky to remove as such.

I had the same problem with one of my dc. His jaw was visibly deforming. I used a Thumbguard to break the habit. His jaw started straightening out within months, and was completely straight after a couple of years.

We did it when he was five, so old enough to understand and choose to co-operate. Bribery was involved, in the form of a major reward of his choice. Before the Thumbguard ever went on, it was discussed, explored and played with. He chose his own reward and was fully involved in the process.

There was a lot of negative comment in the playground (he's a younger sibling) because many parents saw it as a nasty method, but ds was not forced or bullied into it. Nor did he find it distressful.

The Thumbguard was very successful. Though something I wish I had known at the time is that you need to be prepared for a different self-soothing behaviour to come through, and perhaps channel it towards a more acceptable/less harmful form, such as twiddling a taggy.

DD is 3.7. She's also a committed thumb sucker. We've started telling her that when she's bigger she'll have to stop and we try to pop her thumb out if it goes in during the day. But at this age (and certainly 2) I don't think it's necessary (or possible) to get them to stop altogether. We're thinking of tackling it around school age. The critical point is when they start getting their adult teeth I think.