Time to stop him sucking that thumb!

[Elvis]

My ds2 is a thumb sucker. He always does it when tired/going to sleep. He is now 3 1/2 and we'd like to discourage it. Have we left it too late? All advice welcome. I don't think this will be an easy one to crack!

Don't have the answer but also have ds2 who is nearly 3 1/2 and a thumb sucker when going to sleep. He only does it for a few minutes at that time but sucks quite hard during the night if he wakes or is disturbed so I think he could be doing it a lot more than I think. My ds also has a muslin square when going to sleep and the two (muslin and thumb sucking) seem to be intertwined. Thinking of getting rid of the muslin but it is such a comfort to him and I'm such a soft mummy I don't think I can bear it. Not looking forward to his first dentist visit in September however! Sure I will be hauled over the coals about his slightly protruding front teeth.

My DS is five and still sucks his, especially when tired/ going to sleep or upset (like when I tell him off). I'd be very interested to hear how people have stopped it. TBH it doesn't really bother me, but I'm tired of listening to other people getting hysterical about it.

I'm not a big fan of taking away comfort objects and I think thumb sucking is almost impossible to stop, even though I know it can put teeth out of alignment. However, I certainly wouldn't take away a muslin. After all, if you thought of it as a favourite teddy bear, you wouldn't take that away. My stepdaughter sucked her thumb until 11, when she had to have a brace that prevented thumb-sucking.

Elvis - I would leave him alone. He sucks it because he needs to. I have 4 children, 3 of whom were thumb suckers. The only problem I have had about teeth is overcrowding in DS2 that has nothing to do with thumbsucking. DD (child no.4) is still sucking her thumb age 10yrs and her teeth are perfect.

I sucked my thumb until I was about 8. It did make my teeth stick out a bit but a brace fixed that.
TBH I wouldn't do it yet.

I had overcrowding too so that could be why my teeth stuck out and nothing to do with the thumb sucking.

Mears, reassuring as ever!

The teeth thing worries me more than anything TBH. We'll see what our dentist says on the next visit.

both me and my sister sucked our thumbs, no sticky out teeth or any problems at all. do i admit to both of us still indulging???? i am 29 she is 26....ahem

Elvis I stated a threa on this a while ago as DS1 is now 5 and still was sucking...I was mostly worried about teeth but also because it seemed to make his skin all dribbly and give him sore patches on chin etc (he has quite sensitive skin). Anyway, we have gone down the route of frequent reminders/pointing out that his skin will get better, and he does seem to have stopped as if by magic! He's really proud about it too and his skin is a lot clearer so he's happy too which is great and a good way to keep it up. I take Mears' point, and tbh I'm not so bothered about the habit for a sleep-comfort thing, but DS1 was doing it throughout the day and I was worried about teasing at school as well!

As I've said on other threads, DS1 (5) sucks his all the time and he has ruined his teeth and jaw. His top 4 teeth have been pulled forward, the bottom ones pushed back and he's reshaped his jaw and the roof of his mouth. I am constantly reminding him to stop sucking it, I've threatened, explained, cajoled, bribed... short of bandaging his thumb to this hand, there's not a lot I can do. There's no way he's going to escape having a brace.

Yes, there are some people whose teeth don't get affected - I was one - but there are others where is causes loads of problems. You should be able to tell if your DSs style of thumbsucking is causing problems by looking at his teeth. If it's not causing problems, I'd leave it (although I wish I hadn't left it with DS1 assuming he'd grow out of it!)