Thumb Sucking

[WonderBundlesMommy]

Background: DS (19m) is devoted to his thumb, has been since early on. Nursed to 13 months, thumb was occasional, generally just naps/bedtime. Since weaning, thumb use has increased significantly and is now throughout the day. Has never had a pacifier of any type, or a bottle, went right from nursing to cup - not sure if that is relevant or affects need for comfort sucking but thought worth mentioning.

I have absolutely no problem with his sucking his thumb, can see that it is his comfort mechanism, and would feel very trying to take it away from him at this point.

BUT, am being told by everyone that I should "break the habit" and warned that it will affect his teeth/jaw positioning. I have also been told that it could be contributing to his speech delay, which makes me as this comes from someone who has no idea the details of his delay, which is very much not related to thumb sucking!

Anyway I know the ladies of MN will give me the truth. Should I be trying (and if so how?) to discourage DS thumb sucking? Is there real harm in it and if so how does one stop it? If there is no harm, what is wrong with letting him have his comfort mechanism? Am open to any advice/comment, I really am geniunely not understanding why people (and many of them strangers ie. coming up to me in the grocery store!) are so adamant that this is bad?

DS1 was a thumbsucker from 4 weeks old and it didn't delay his speech at all (he spoke early and clearly).

However, I've just finished paying for £4k worth of orthodontic treatment to correct the damage to his teeth and jaws. Te treatment will continue until he stops growing (he's coming up to 11 and the treatment started when he was 8).

We discouraged him, we put plasters in the thumb, we explained to to him, we painted Stop 'n' Grow on it. The only thing that stopped him was the brace that stopped him opening his mouth meaning he (eventually) couldn't get the thumb in. Even now, I sometimes find his thumb up by his mouth which is kind of sweet - less often now though.

DD1 sucks her thumb. She has done since she was born, and now she's 15.

I'm an extreme case (too soft by half), but generally I think 6/7 is the age at which it's recommended that you start to wean them off it. Then, or when their adult teeth start to emerge.

I wouldn't worry about it for now, if both you and he are comfortable with it. He might grow out of it on his own before then anyway.

If I'm successful at getting DD to stop, I'll let you know how I did it !

DD sucks her thumb. She is now nearly 10 and there is so far no damage to her teeth. She only does it at bedtime and once she is asleep I go in and take her thumb out of her mouth. It gives her an enormous amount of comfort and I think in time she will grow out of it (or at least do it very rarely).

I sucked my thumb well in to adulthood and my teeth are fine.

I wouldn't worry about it.

DS on the other hand couldn't seem to find his thumb and in the end had a dummy (I had very sucky babies). It was absolute hell to wean him off it and it has definately affected his teeth.

dd did this since she was a couple of months old, as she grew she would do it for comfort or to fall asleep
she stopped before she was 3
we never made an issue out of it
zero speech problems in fact she was a very early, clear talker

Forgot to say DD had no speech problems, in fact talked very early and hasn't stopped since

Thank you so much for your replies. I love MN for the varied perspectives and experiences! For those who "allowed" DC to continue to have their thumb, how do you respond to people's comments? Or am I the only one who's had them?

DoesntChristmasDragOn - at the cost of the dental work! That's exactly what people have been telling me about. May I ask at what point it began to cause problems for your DS?

I would just ignore any comments - after all he's your ds not theirs!

Having said that as my dd got older I discouraged her from thumb sucking in public. I got a lot more nasty comments about ds and his dummy.

At the end of the day lots of very young children suck their thumbs and most grow out of it. If your ds is happy and content I really wouldn't worry about it

DD1 has no dental problems whatsoever - my dentist told me that the thumb sucking was most likely to push the teeth into place as it was to push them out of shape. He also said that if they were going to need orthodontal work, nothing would really prevent it.

DD1 stopped sucking her thumb in public when she was about 7/8 and before that I only had the odd comment, which I ignored or just said that I felt that if he wanted to do it, then I didn't have a problem with that.

His teeth were affected early on. I don't know about the jaw - it made his chin appear pushed back. He looks absolutely fabulous now - perfect teeth and a wonderful square jawline. Worth every penny.

It's to do with not having their lower and upper teeth together, apparently. This makes the jaws grow incorrectly in compensation and can happen to non-thumbsuckers too (that slack jawed look when watching TV for example ). DS2 was not a thumbsucker and needed braces too but his case was far less complicated than DS1's.

I guess stop him as soon as you can (which from experience I know is nigh on impossible) and then keep nagging him to keep his mouth shut. DD started sucking her thumb last year and it's pulled her teeth forwards at the front already. I'm encouraging her to stop but, TBH, its simply not possible until they want to do it themselves.

As an aside, I was a thumbsucker and my teeth were fine - I would have said that it hadn't affected me at all. The orthodontist looked at me when I took DS in (without looking in my mouth) and said with utmost confidence "you were a thumbsucker."

I have 2 thumbsuckers in my class (Y2) and their teeth are pushed forward and they both have similar typical thumbsucking mouths IYKWIM.

they suck their thumbs and look daydreamy as they dont concentrate at all.

It does drive me a bit batty and I do tell them to stop sucking their thumbs.

If I had a child that sucked their thumb then I would be keen to break the habit now.

At 38 I still have a friend who sucks her thumb and it is actually thinner than the thumb she doesnt suck!

I am very anti-dummy, but apparently, thumbs do more damage than dummies to teeth.

My oldest two sons sucked their thumbs. THey were both botle fed, but I changed to cups at six month sold with both. Oldest had totally stopped by a year old, middle son stopped by about three. I just told him to take his thumb out of his mouth every time I saw him doing it, and said he was too old to do that now.

Neither had speech delays and both have beautiful teeth.

DS took to his dummy - gave it to santa when he was 2.5. When DD1 came along she sucked her thumb from a very early age and we all thought it was so cute! Fast forward a few years, she was still sucking it all the time, family members would tell her to stop but I told them not to keep highlighting it and that she would stop when she was ready.

Was rather embarassed when I took her to the dentists however, as she had no bite and her teeth were a mess - still not sure if she will end up with braces or not (she is 11). We had battles for a while trying to get her to stop - I tried to get her to keep it to bedtime as the school were also making comments that she was going into a dreamworld while sucking her thumb. On the nights we put that stuff on the thumb she would be in floods of tears because she couldn't sleep - also on nights when she had a cold she would get distraught about not being able to suck it.

Then, out of the blue last July, she declared to me that she was going to 'give it up'!!!!! We told her if she could go a whole month without sucking her thumb we would buy her something nice, not thinking she would make it. She didn't say a word about it - then about 6/8 weeks later I asked her and she told me she doesn't suck her thumb AT ALL anymore, bless her!!! We got her a game for the wii and are so proud of her! Her thumb is still smaller than the other one but her teeth seem to be slowly lining up now.

When we had DD2, I practically forced her to take the dummy (not really!) as I didn't want to go through all that again. Strangely enough, she refused it when her teeth came through and hasn't turned to the thumb or anything else since then!

It really is up to you and each child is different but I thought I'd share my experience with you. We've all had different experiences on mn and it can be useful to have all sorts of different aspects to help you. Hope it goes well and I'd say that there really is no hard right or wrong...

Oh by the way, you do what you feel is best for you and DS, it's none of other people's business, simples!

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences, it is so helpful, MN is the best! I think for now (I still think he is very young) I will leave him to it, both because it does comfort him and because it sounds like trying to stop him is likely to be an exercise in futility until/unless he is ready. Will just keep fingers crossed for now that he "gives it up" before potentially costly dental work....and try to come up with a snappy response for unsolicited comments!

My DS, 2, sucks his thumb when tired and when watching TV. I am not concerned about this as I sucked my thumb and still do now sometimes when asleep and have never had any problems with my teeth!! I will encourage him not to do it out of bed from school age i expect, but apart from that I am not concerned.

my dd 21mths sucks her thumb. She was bf and my own personal theory is that bf babies suck harder and put more of the thumb in. My dentist says it depends on how hard they suck as to whether it will affect their teeth. I always put her to sleep with a dummy but its not long before the thumb goes in. In the day if she puts her thub in and i ask her to take it out she now puts her finger in and sucks that

Don't want to hijack but just wondered if anyone had any experience of how finger, rather than thumb, sucking affects teeth? DD1 is 3 and a half and sucks index and middle fingers. Like many posters here I am loath to try and stop her as it is such a comfort to her, but I do worry from time to time that it could cause problems with her teeth.

Hmm, LoveBeingAMummy, I had not heard that before - DS definitely really hauls on his thumb though, and noticably more since he weaned from nursing.

Francesrivis - don't know how it affects it but DS will sometimes suck fingers too if thumb is not enough - when his molars were coming through it was the whole hand! Will be interested to read about this.

Well, this morning was DS checkup, sitting in the (very small) waiting room two older ladies making comments to me about how he is too old to be sucking his thumb and it's going to "get rotten and fall off." Decided to quit being meek and bothered by this, does not suit my personality. So acted absolutely and very concerned, and when the nurse came to get us, said to her "OMG these ladies said DS thumb is going to rot and fall off from still sucking it at 19m!" The withering look the nurse gave them was pricesless and I just smiled sweetly and thanked them very earnestly for their concern. Had to share! Feel so much better about this now! Thanks ladies of MN!

pmsl

You really should start to end the thumb sucking as early as age 3 or 4 before the habit is hard to break. There is a great product called "humbuddy To Love". It is a positive, comforting product that comes with a story book, and thumb puppet and success chart and kids love it!! You can get it on their web site or on Amazon. Dont be afraid to try early becuase you dont wantt to viit the othodontist and get braces from all the thumb sucking (buck teeth).. that will be a huge expense!!

sorry it was called Thumbuddy To Love...

I've not got any experience of having a child who sucks their thumb, but I was myself a thumb sucker for a long time. I think I was about 12-13 years old when I stopped. I was told I had to stop sucking my thumb by the dentist, otherwise I would be unable to have treatment. After stopping sucking my thumb (which my mum bribed me to do, and only took about a week!), I then had about 3 years of dental work. I still have the plaster cast they took of my teeth before treatment - my bottom teeth were badly pushed inwards and my top teeth pushed outwards (it really did look awful). I really hated all the braces I had to wear, and found the treatment very painful (and teeth cleaning more time consuming while wearing braces).

If there is any way to stop the thumb sucking now, I would say it was a good idea - just to try and avoid having to have any kind of braces etc as an older child.

I am the same as NewYearNewBaby. Not sure how old i was when i stopped sucking my thumb but it was a long time-parents tried everything. They used to paint my nails with that stuff you use to stop biting your nails, though the worst time for me was at night as they used to put knitted scratch mitten on my hands and tie them so tightly i couldnt get them off. (was also a nail biter and a hair puller-they had their work cut out clearly!) Guess it worked eventually as i dont really do it now, unless im really tired.

Thanks for the "Thumbuddy" info Mamaski, I will check it out on Amazon and may go ahead and get it for the future if he continues for a couple of years. Nice to hear that there is a positive, comforting way to do it someday as I would be so at the thought of how upset he would be at this point (19m).

Just wanted to contribute to the thread. My mum breastfed me until age 2, for which I am forever greatful as I have eczema and I think it really helped my condition. However, I sucked my thumb really hard (left one) and would have teethmarks in it by morning. It is now smaller and shorter than the right thumb.

I carried on until age 11. I had 3 years of orthodontic work, because I couldn't chew my food properly - my teeth didn't mesh together. I had to eat soggy cereal and couldn't handle bread crusts on homemade bread, etc. I was an early talker, and it didn't give me a speech defect, but it did impact on my life. Three years of every single orthodontic appliance going, along with headgear to correct my overbite of 1 full cm....This was from age 13 to 16. I was prescribed codeine for the pain. The left side of my teeth was not nicely rounded, but caved in a bit from my left hand constantly pressing against my face in my sleep. The midline of my teeth was off as well, pushed to the right. I liked to hook my index finger over my nose, and that side of my nose is caved in a bit too. I only recently discovered that my left nasal passage is essentially caved in, and if I want to fix this, I'll have to have my nose broken and reset.

So I can understand how strangers' comments may upset the OP, but I don't think it helps to say that "it's fine and there will be no lasting damage". I hate dummies, especially in the mouths of 3 or 4 year olds, but it's got to be better than all the trouble I've had from years of thumb-sucking. At least you can throw the dummy away/get the child to post it to Santa, or something. The thumb is always there.

Yes, my poor mother tried everything to get me to stop. I wish she had duct taped oven mitts to my hands when I was 2 years old, and then it might well have all been avoided.