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Behaviour/development

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Original poster

Who's had a thumb sucker?

18 replies

sambababy · 11/09/2016 16:25

I'm just curious here really as DS is only 3mo but since the early days it's been clear he will be a thumb sucker. On the one hand it's great, he's able to get his thumb in his mouth now quite easily and often soothes himself to sleep longer by doing it. On the other hand, and I'm aware this is mostly vanity, please don't shoot me...most people I know who sucked their thumbs long term did end up with sticking out teeth, some even after braces. If your DC sucked their thumb, when did they grow out of it? Did you have to stop them somehow, or did you give a dummy instead? I'm well aware he might not keep it up and I'm not worried about him doing it while he's little, as I said I'm just curious.

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NellysKnickers · 11/09/2016 16:28

I've got a sucker. No protruding teeth.......yet. I sucked my thumb for many years and no brace required. I'm very lucky and have inherited good strong straight teeth and hoping ds2 is as lucky as me.

AugustRose · 11/09/2016 16:40

I was a thumb sucker until the age of about 6/7 and do have an overbite so should have had braces.

DD1 was a thumb sucker until about 7 and also had an overbite, she has had braces but not really for that.

DS1 was also a thumb sucker but his teeth are straight and he didn't need braces.

No advice as I never found anyway to stop them, I think I tried that stuff you put on to stop people biting their nails but it didn't really work. As they got old I would remind them if I saw them with a thumb in their mouth but you can't stop them at night, they just eventually grew out of it.

GingerIvy · 11/09/2016 16:41

My ds2 was a thumb sucker, however, he has very high anxiety and continued to suck his thumb until he was almost 7. He's just recently decided to give it up on his own (yay!) a few months ago, and just stopped and that was that.

His teeth definitely are not lined up well, however, I feel I should point out that he has some dental issues anyway as a few of his teeth have not come in and the dentist thinks he may be missing some permanent teeth - so it's possible the misalignment is due to that and not the thumb sucking. I do honestly think it did have an impact, simply due to the way they are lined up, but we shall see.

SirChenjin · 11/09/2016 16:44

I had a finger sucker. Our dentist advised us to stop him doing it whenever we saw it, and to take it out at night - some kids get away with it, others end up with misaligned teeth, and so he recommended we did what we could to stop it.

PacificOcean · 11/09/2016 20:02

I had two thumb suckers. DS1 stopped spontaneously at 16 months, so I thought DD would also give up by herself. But no - she's nearly 9yo and still sucks her thumb!

I was also a thumb sucker. I had to have braces, but have perfect teeth now.

Pab78 · 12/09/2016 18:10

I have a 5 year old thumb sucker. Was sucking his thumb on my scans and hasn't really stopped. He sucks it mainly at night, never at school (according to teacher in reception) and when he is cuddling me. He has lovely teeth but has started to get a bit of a gap. Dentist last week said nothing to worry about and not to make a big deal of it. We have tried in the past to stop it but he clearly associates it with being cosy and sleepy.

gillybeanz · 12/09/2016 18:13

One out of 3 of ours was a thumb sucker, she is the only one to wear a brace.
her friends that wear braces were ALL thumb suckers too, she asked them.
I ask people I know too, they all say the same.
Not conducive evidence obviously, but everyone I ask said they were.

Branleuse · 12/09/2016 18:15

my thumbsucker is now 8, still going strong, and whilst she does have an overbite, her teeth are straighter than the other twos who didnt suck their thumb

heatherwithapee · 12/09/2016 18:20

DD thumb sucked from 3 months ish. Luckily (or not) she got hand, foot & mouth at the age of 2.5 which made it very painful to suck her thumb, so she stopped. We had a difficult few nights but the habit was broken and she didn't go back to it when her hand was better.
I was a thumb sucker until 9 or 10 (only at night) and my teeth are ok.

Original poster

sambababy · 12/09/2016 22:59

Seems like it's partly luck of the draw then. It probably depends on the extent of the thumb sucking I guess. Removing the thumb when they're asleep is a good idea, worth trying as they get older.

Just thinking now, DH's family has some truly awful teeth, and me & my siblings had braces too, so I would probably never know if bad teeth were down to thumb sucking or genes.

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tapdancingmum · 12/09/2016 23:05

DD2 still sucks her thumb and is 15! She has braces at the moment but for misaligned and one tooth growing the wrong way. It's not due to thumb sucking and I can't see her giving up anytime soon. Luckily it's her right thumb and she is right handed so doesn't suck it at school

DramaAlpaca · 12/09/2016 23:11

None of my three children were thumb suckers, but I was one myself.

Sucking my thumb did result in sticking out front teeth, and it was only when I got braces on aged 11 that I stopped doing it, because it didn't feel right any more. Thankfully I didn't go back to thumb sucking and my teeth are perfect.

QuackDuckQuack · 12/09/2016 23:24

DD1 was a thumb sucker until about 4. She did have an overbite, but that disappeared quickly once she stopped thumb sucking. She stopped because she hurt her thumb and couldn't suck it with a plaster on it. She then declared that she didn't want to teach our baby to suck its thumb (I was pregnant at the time). She then put a new plaster on it every day to ensure she didn't go back to sucking it. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it might be.

DD2 was every bit as sucky as DD1, but having had the stress of not knowing whether DD1 would stop thumb sucking, we gave DD2 a dummy. At 8 months we got fed up of having to go in to put her dummy back in through the evening, so we got rid of the dummy. It was a couple of days before she forgot all about it and she didn't start thumb sucking. I'd definitely recommend a dummy over thumb sucking if its not too late.

PotatoBread · 14/09/2016 11:56

My HV advised that if my DD started to stuck her thumb give her a dummy ASAP. Her reasoning was that dummies are orthodontic whereas thumbs aren't as its much easier to wean a child off a dummy (dummy tree etc) then it is to try and stop a child from sucking their thumb when older

Trumpette · 14/09/2016 12:08

I have a finger sucker aged eight. We have spoken to him about stopping as has the dentist and I have agreed he can stop when he wants. I sucked my thumb and made a conscious decision to stop aged ten. I had braces but think despite this experience the comfort he gets from doing it outweighs the changes to his teeth alignment which can mostly be corrected (if necessary) in due course. The dentist said it is not guaranteed to change his teeth anyway and it is difficult to properly assess until all his teeth are in. TBH there are others things to be concerned about, well
I think so!

We have made inroads in to reducing it just to night time and this seems to work.

QuackDuckQuack · 14/09/2016 17:38

It probably depends very much on the child whether it has an impact on their jaws. Before my DD stopped thumb sucking you could see that she had an overbite - making her top jaw pull forward and restricting the growth of her lower jaw. This fixed itself within 6 months of stopping.

I've seen kids with really splayed out top jaws very obviously from extended thumb sucking - they've actually changed the way their bones have grown.

Having had extensive orthodontics, I would definitely try to reduce the risk of having to have orthodontic treatment - it does really hurt.

CousinCharlotte · 14/09/2016 18:03

All of mine were thumb suckers, none have had any dental problems.

luckylambchop · 27/09/2016 11:33

I sucked my thumb until I was 11, my DD is almost 8 and still sucks hers. We have always told her she would have to stop when her two front "big" teeth came though, well, they have just started to grow but she hasn't stopped and I have not yet pushed the issue (mainly as I know that I could not have stopped at that age). I did need braces so perhaps she will too.

I have to be honest and say that if I had a baby now I would probably use a dummy to try and avoid having another thumb sucker. They are just as habit forming, I think, but at least you can remove them, you can't remove a thumb!

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