thumbing sucking 3 yo...am really concerned

[noonar]

dd2 has just turned 3 and i've noticed recently that her teeth are becoming quite obviously affected by her thumb sucking.

she has a really cute 'elfin' face and is a real sweetie to look at. but her teeth are starting to be more noticeable.

family members have made comments. i would hate this to become the thing that people notice most when they meet her for the first time.

she has a very 'open bite'- the top teeth stick out quite a bit, and the lower incisors are starting to be pushed back.

i'm really concerned, esp as her sis is losing her teeth really early (she's lost 5 teeth, including top 2 front teeth before age 5.5). if dd1 is the same, me may have less time to sort this out than others!

dd2 is v much the baby of the family. she's a bright spark, but a bit young to reason with or for reward charts designed to help her stop, etc, imo.

any ideas?

bumping to ask if anyone else's dc had dental problems with first teeth. did the problems persist with adult teeth?

worry not! Just asked a parent who works in dentistry for any info on damage dummies do to the teeth in 4 year olds ec etc. Was informed(acurateky, i believe) That even if teeth grow around the dummy or thumb( twisted, protruding, diagonal etc) in the baby teeth there is no problem. If it dummy or thumb habit then it needs breaking well before they lose their first teeth as the permanent teeth can not be alter other than by braces etc. Only damage the MAY be done by dummy or thumbs with first teeth is to the palate that can affect clarity of speech. dummy of course hinders speech development in any child talking with dummy usually in its mouth or i suppose a thumb always in but teeth should be fine long term as long as habit broken by school time. If any of this is wrong please anyone let me know as its a subject I feel strongly about.

ps, mittens at bedtime and new special cuddly to compensate for loss of thumb as comfort object

kiddi, my elder daughter also had an open bite, due to dummy use, though. she stopped sucking at 2.5, and her teeth went back to normal after a year.

i'm worried that unless dd2 stops very soon, then any damage wont be rectified before she loses her first teeth.

Dental lady assured me that damage to new teeth layout does not start until new teeth start to appear. Hope to get some formal info by wednesday so will forward anything I find out

My DD managed to get rid of the dummy a few weeks ago, she is 3 and a half and has an obvious open bite too.
When we went to the dentist last week for a check up he congratulated us and said that breaking the habit before adult teeth start coming down is the way to do it.
He advises his patients to get rid of dummy or thumb before the 3rd birthday but said that at 3.5 we had done well.

FWIW though, my brother sucked his thumb well into his teens and was always told he would end up with a brace. Did he? NO ... but I did and I never sucked my thumb or had a dummy

thanks kiddi and ghosty. i just dropped her off at preschool- she's just started- and she toddled in holding her comforter (muslin cloth) and sucking her thumb! i think i'll need to leave it a few weeks till she's settled in before trying to get her to stop.

ghosty, you say your bro was fine, but did he have any visible effects of thumb sucking? some suckers are more aggressive suckers than others!

DD1 (now 6 yo) was a cronic thumb sucker. She also sucked very hard which was ruining her permanent teeth. Even though many people on mumsnet have said thumb sucking is completely harmless & never affected them/their children, I realised that isn't the case for all children. It must depend on the position of the tongue or the intensity of the sucking, but her teeth & face shape was being affected. So, a few months ago, I decided to splash out on a Thumbguard in desperation, since all other efforts had failed miserably. It worked brilliantly. The first couple of nights were bad since she cried so pitifully for me to take it off, but she soon got used to it & had stopped sucking her thumb during the night within a week, quickly followed by her daytime habit disappearing.

My main reservation about the Thumbguard was like it looked uncomfortable on the website's pictures, but it's not. It's actually made from soft plastic & allowed DD1 to use her hand freely.

I highly recommend it. I really don't think she would have broken the habit without it. She is now owed some Minnie Mouse ears for finally completing her goal of stopping thumbsucking & she's delighted. That reminds me: I'd better go find some on the web.

Hmm, I said that the wrong way round. She broke her daytime habit 1st, followed by her night-time one.

oh sammy, thankyou so much for your post.

my dd2 is clearly a very 'hard sucker'.

her teeth are really bad all of a sudden, so it's crazy to think i could somehow not worry about it!

dh thinks it is also affecting her speech a little. she was a fluent talker well before 2, but i think she finds it harder to ennunciate (sp) words clearly due to her open bite.

i saw thumbguard on a website. thought i could tell her that her thumb waspoorly (it has a 'knobble' on it) and that the guard was to help make it better.

am dreading the tears though.

It has definitely affected DD1's speech, which I'm hoping will improve now that she no longer sucks her thumb. It's only been about a month so she still sits with her tongue protruding a bit, but that's happening less & less.

Stick to your guns with it, especially at night when she'll probably struggle to fall asleep without her comforter. It is well worth a few tears for a happier, healthier child in the long run. And, for anyone who says she won't happier, just think how unhappy she'd be as a teenager with badly deformed teeth & a speech impediment.

so sammy, dyou wish you'd acted a bit sooner, hon? it's so hard!

i have no objection to thumb sucking in general. i dont care if it looks babyish. but i do care about the damage, so am reluctant to leave it till she starts school as some others have suggested (not on MN)

sorry sammy, what i meant to say was, dyou wish you'd found the thumbguard sooner?

should i try less drastic measures first?

Absolutely! I wish I had it when she was 3, before her permanent teeth & speech were affected. They should recover, but it would have been so much better if I'd found it sooner.

what about nail bite stuff?

just spoken to dentist. he says to talk to her about it and just explain to her that she needs to stop...not sure that'll work, somehow.

havent actually discussed it that much with dd, as she's so little.

As a 26 year old thumb sucker (I obviously have comfort issues!)I would say to nip it in the bud as soon as possible.