Thumb-sucking; has anyone used a Thumbguard?

[PrettyCandles]

Has anyone used one of these?

Both kids (2 and 4) suck their thumbs and I wouldn't dream of trying to stop them. They get soooo much comfort from it when they are tired or sad. What does it really matter if it affets their teeth - won't we all be shelling out for braces later anyway???

trying to stop my DD 5mths from thumb sucking, any tips?

sep1712 - dont try, you'll find it's what gets her back to sleep in the middle of the night! DD1 sucks her finger and has always been a great sleeper, wish DD2 did too....

my first 2 used dummies just for bed so knew when bed time was and could remove when they didn't need them so worried that every time i see my princess that she'll have her thumb stuck in her mouth!

Worried about her teeth!

Oh, I can see it from a Mum POV - you don't want your child to need orthodontic treatment etc (£4000, soupy ?)

But I can also see it from the child's POV -as a thumb-sucker who only stopped at the age of 11 (when I got the first of many braces) that thing just looks barbaric - I would have been distraught at not being able to suck my thumb.

It's a hard one...

DS7 sucks his thumb still when tired. Dont plan on making him stop. Dentist hasnt asked if ds is a thumb sucker and his jaw seems fine. He finds it soothing and comforting and doesnt tend to in daytimes unless especially tired or long car journey. I am sure he will stop as he gets older due to peer pressure but I dont plan on forcing him. He was a happy content baby and is a happy content child.

I was a thumb and little finger sucker and when concentrating the finger bit can slip apart from a callus on my finger and slightly crooked bottom teeth am fine. I think jaw and teeth shape have alot to do with genes and less to do with thumb sucking.

also there researh is old.. mostly out of date

sources:

1. "Damage to the primary dentition resulting from thumb and finger (digit) sucking", Journal of Dentistry for Children. Nov-Dec 1996.
2. "Influence of thumb sucking on peer social acceptance in first-grade children", Pediatrics. April, 1994.
3. American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. "Thumbsucking - stop it early." Feb. 1, 1999.

awful

My dd was able to escape from it, and also sucked in daytime - but never in public. She was a loud sucker, very thorough. So much her tongue could slip through between teeth and she lisped. Cute in small kid, not at secondary level!

ds home poorly. Just showed him the link to the thumb guard and he immediatly jammed thumb in his mouth and said it looks horrible and if he had one he would break it or getting my dp to cut the thumb guard off. Bless him, i couldnt put something like that on him.

Not as barbaric as the intra oral contraption I saw once on a girl from Sweden. She `came to see me as an emergency patient (she was staying with her grandparents in the UK), after a fall had chipped her front tooth. I looked in her mouth and she had a fixed appliance with a spike (not a sharp one, but...)positioned in the roof of her mouth to deter her from sucking her thumb . Never seen nor heard of such a thing before or since.

I'm getting a bit fed up with all this 'barbaric' stuff. Please note that I would only use this with dd's willing co-operation. She will not be under any duress whatsoever. There is nothing barbaric about that.

If jaw shape is so genetic, then it's definitely the thumb-sucking which has affected her jaw, as we all - on both sides - have wide jaws with virtually perfect bites.

If it was just teeth I wouldn't worry so much - orthodontics later, and go without a holiday that year. If it was just the lisp again I wouldn't worry so much - speech therapy would help later. But her jaw is getting more and more misshapen, her bit is opening further and it makes it hard for her to eat. Yes, the lisp is cute.

That said, I wouldn't try to stop a 5mo thumb-sucking. At that stage it's valuable, and there's no guarantee that it will be a problem later on.

Go for it.

Barbaric is putting your child through lots of unnecessary dental work and in the case of a jaw, possibly surgery, later.

*unecessary as in wouldn't have been needed if things were dealt with earlier.

Sorry my post was badly written. I wasn't suggesting you where being barbaric thinking about using that I meant the contraption I saw wired to this poor girl's mouth was what I considered barbaric.

I guess I should have written "That isn't barbaric, what I would consider barbaric...." as the start of my post.

I used a barbaric cure for thumb sucking! OK, it was by accident before you get social services on to me - DD (age 4) was out for a walk pushing her dolls pram with both hands on the handle when she tripped - she stayed holding on to the bar and skinned both thumbs. Ouch! - imagine taking a cheese grater to both thumbs, that's what it was like, poor thing. Anyway, she couldn't suck either thumb for over a week as it hurt too much - this was 3 weeks ago and the thumb hasn't gone near her mouth since.

Wouldn't recommend it though!

I've posted on this before, forgive me if I bore you.
My daughter was a thumb sucker. Had huge gap in her bite. Dentist advised us to encourage her to stop sucking her thumb before the adult teeth appeared. She was about 5.5 yrs old. We used a woollen glove on her at night. Took very little time to break the habit. Only worked because she was so compliant and cooperative. Doubt if you could do this on a younger child.
HTH

Why do people think it's barbaric?
I had read all the posts first and then looked and was expecting something somewhat really nasty...but it doens't look nasty at all....
Used to have Braces etc . (got Bilateral cleft lip and palate, was born with teeht that had to be pulled out, etc....) and those fixed Braces were not very pleasant, I must say...of course there is worse, but whenever they get tightened it really is painful for days after, and of course thent ehre is always some bt of metal rubbing a part of your mouth. lips or another...
PC, if your dd wants to try it, in your circumstances I cna completely understand it!
And phew am I glad my Kids all used dummies...so much easier to get rid off!

Ouch at Housemums poor lil one...

Ds is asleep - having sucked his thumb again to help him get off. He checked that I wouldnt buy the thumb guard, bless him. Maybe we are lucky that his bite/jaw is fine. He has slightly wonky bottom teeth, but so does his father and I. Dentist has not attributed them to thumb sucking and doesnt see them as a problem at all.

I personally dont like the look of the thumb guard at all and if thumb sucking is really a problem the idea of a woolly mit sounds alot better maybe coupled with a reward chart for so many nights thumb sucking free?

Housemum, that's how ds1 broke himself of his finger-sucking at night: a deep scratch on his finger. Plus the promise of rewards if he didn't suck for a month.