Advice needed on how to stop DD (4) constantly sucking her thumb

[mandyMOOnlightandhearts]

She sucks her thumb constantly and uses it as an excuse not to talk to others at times. She tries to speak through her thumb sucking to me and dh it drives me mad!

Any advice on how to get her to stop/cut down?

She's starting school in September and i just have visions of her sitting there with her thumb in her mouth all day!

TIA

anyone?!

I don't know but did find that ds sucked his less when he started school (until he was tired and then it went straight back in!).

I would start 'not hearing' her if you feel it's interfering with her speech - i.e. pretend you can't hear until she takes her thumb out and says it clearly.

I had a chronic thumb sucker and tried EVERYTHING. It used to drive me crazy cos I could see his teeth were starting to stick out. The problem was he did manage to stop in the day time but night time was a different story. I did the yukky tasting stuff, and socks, and sticker charts, and bribes (I mean incentives :P). I even went online and showed him what would happen to his teeth if he continued. Mean I know but I was desperate. Anyway, in my search online I found this ... www.thumbguard.com.au. It seemed kinda pricey but when I thought about how much I had already spent on stuff to try to stop it, not to mention the emotions both he and I had spent, and I was desperate. I figured it seemed the least traumatic and I could buy it from Australia so I just went ahead and bought it and OMG it worked! He only wore it at night cos day wasn?t a problem, and within a month he didn?t need or want to suck his thumb anymore. Even better I can see a difference in his teeth structure.

Now if only there was something I could buy to get rid of his other annoying habits :P

Good luck!