for anyone who would like their child to stop thumb or finger sucking....

[mckenzie]

6 year old DS has always sucked two fingers on his left hand. We decided to invest in a fingerguard and DS has been wearing it constantly for 2 weeks (we just took it off every night for his bath/shower and also for swimming and judo) and it seems to have worked.
Last night DS didn't suck his fingers at all as far as we could tell and I checked on him about 73 times (okay, maybe only 10 times) and his teacher said she didn't see him sucking at all at school today and tonight again, no sucking.
So, i know it's very early days but it looks like it might have worked. I hope so because DS so wants to stop too.

what is a fingerguard?

I got it from www.thumbguard.co.uk. Check out the website and all will be revealed.

So you sent him to school wearing this thing? Did anyone tease him? My 4 yr old DD is a big thumb sucker. But, I don't know if I'd make her go to school wearing that thumb guard.

yes, he wore it to school, to his weekend club, to tennis and to his friend's birthday party.

The first few days at school a lot of people asked him and to start with, apparently, he used to look all shocked and say "wow, where on earth did that come from" and he told his Headmaster that I must have put it on him when he was asleep because he had never seen it before! I'd sent a note in the first day he wore it so the teachers were heads up and knew that DS was teasing. From what I saw, when other children asked he just ignored them (he's not normally rude) as I think he was a tad embarrased but after a few days he didn't even talk about it and the other children stopped asking. I'm pretty sure he would have told me if he was teased as he's quite a gentle lad who would have been upset by that.

According to the website, you'll get the best results if the child wants to stop sucking too and this was the case for DS, although granted it was because Dh and I persuaded him that he wanted to stop.

Also Eleusis, I'd spoken to DS's teacher about it and said that if she felt it was causing any problems (physically or emotionally) then would she please cut it off immediately and she assured me that it was fine.

our dentist always said the sucking was doing DS no harm which is why we never tried to tackle it before. In fact, we used the 'big teeth' idea to help persuade him to want to stop.
I'm sure it said something on the website about what age, in general, is best kamikayzed.

Oh, DD has a dead tooth. Maybe I'll tell her she killed sucking her thumb. (which of course is not true but she might believe it) hmmmm....

From a thumbsucking child's point of view (I did not stop until 17 years and 360 days old) just ignore it, as much as you can.

I am sure they will stop when they are ready.

The more my parents pushed me to stop (painting on that nasty stuff that you use for stop biting your nails, calling me a baby, putting me down, embarrasing me by telling most people that came over etc.)the more I needed it. Especially if they are not strong confident children they will need this. They will stop when they are ready.

It did my teeth absolutely no harm whatsoever. It did however harm my little sister's teeth, but I think that might also be because she used 2 fingers.

Try going in there with them at night time, if you can then put a tape on as a goodnight story and ask him/her if they can hold both your hands as it would make you feel better.

If for example they fall asleep in the car or the buggy without sucking their thump, mention it and say how clever he/she is for doing that.

Just some ideas .

just use - nasty stop n grow nail

I go in after she goes to sleep and pull her thumb out. She is not allowed to suck it during the day, but I concede at bed time.

maisemor, for what it's worth, I think you are absolutely right which is why we waited until DS was older and wanted to stop.
We also left the fingerguard lying around the house for a few weeks and waited for him to ask what it was for. We showed him and then put it back in the box and waited for him to say that he wanted to wear it.

DD (age 2) sucks her thumb and I dont mention it at all unless she is talking with it in and then i just say that I can't understand her (which is usually true) and she then takes it out. It soon goes back in again though.

Custardo - the nasty tasting stuff doesn't work for most children. The taste isn't that nasty and they only have to lick it off once and it's gone. My mum used to use it one me to stop me biting my finger nails so i speak from experience

how do you feel about hypnotherapy Speccy?
I used to pick the skin around the outside of my finger nails until it was so sore and bleeding all the time. I had huge success with hypnotherapy.

It was about 12 years ago that I went so I can't remember what the cost was. I seem to remember only have 2 or 3 sessions though before it was sorted so it wasn't a lengthy payout. I did have suggestion therapy first ("you will not pick your fingers, you will not pick your fingers") that sort of thing if I remember correctly although that i had done about 16 years ago and the results didn't last. I then had regression therapy (they take you to an event in your past that you supposedly reacted wrongly to hence your habit and take you through it again but with different feelings/response). It wasn't scary or weird and didn't leave me with any hang ups or side effects. All that happened is that I stopped picking.
I'm going on holiday at the crack of dawn tomorrow but if you'd like me to tell you more about my experience when I get back then CAT me and I'll expalin a bit better how it worked at my sessions to give you a better picture to try and decide if it might be suitabel for your son.
You could also search on line of course for some hypnotherapists near you and have a chat with them to get a feel for what they might be able to do.

Good luck. I don't regret doing it at all, i just wished I'd done it sooner.