2-year old has very bad skin due to thumb sucking

[MumOfTwo72]

Hi All
I’m desperate for some advice regarding my little boy’s thumb sucking problem. He is almost 23 months and has been sucking both of his thumbs for a long time. At first it was not a problem but after months of doing it, his skin on his hands has become dry, broken and sometimes blistery. A few weeks ago it got so bad that we were prescribed a steroid cream for a few days. It got much better and now it’s going bad again. He refuses to wear any gloves and takes all of them off. I tried plasters, special gloves with plastic thumb and nothing works. He also rejects all types of dummies. Has anyone got any ideas on how to either cover his hands /damaged skin or get him to stop sucking how thumbs? Thanks a lot in advance.

Could you try the stuff that makes their thumbs taste horrible? Although it might sting if the skin is broken.

How did you stop him sucking them when he had the cream on?

Hi there, thank you very much for responding. We had to use the steroid cream a few months ago and at the time he was too young to be able to take his gloves off himself, so he wore gloves when we put the cream on. Now that his dexterity has improved he takes them off with ease.