How on earth do you persuade young children not to suck their thumb?

[TinyGang]

The dentist has decreed that all thumb and finger sucking must stop forthwith. She was vague about how we actually achieve this though. She seems to think that merely explaining that you must not do this anymore to a 4 year old is sufficient. Oh and something about wearing gloves to bed. Er..it doesn't work that way!

All mine like a thumb, mainly when tired or going to sleep. Now they're getting upset and saying they can't get off to sleep.

I can't police their bedrooms all night long. Part of me feels this is hardly crime of the century anyway. Does it really ruin your teeth? I never sucked my thumb, but I still needed to have a brace anyway when I was older; that's how it is sometimes.

Any suggestions? Any grown-up thumb suckers with tales of how it's ruined their teeth or have you turned out all right?

Will keep an eye on this thread as DD is a thumb sucker again only at bed time to get her off to sleep or when she is having a cuddle. I do know children that thumb suck in private up until 11 but grow out of it eventually. I'm not going to get stressed about it I mean how do you stop a 4 yo sucking their thumb, I'm sure it's not that bad for teeth.

I never sucked my thumb and my teeth are horrendous probably because my Dads were as well.

chop it off

sorry, not very helpful. you can get lotion to paint on that makes them taste gross.

I sucked my thumb (started when I was 4 and thought I was too old for a dummy!)and I did wear a brace for a couple of years in my teens.
Most teenagers seem to wear braces these days though - they can't all have sucked their thumbs. I wouldn't worry about it - I'm sure you have enough other things to worry about

dd who was 4 in August has just this last week given up her thumb of her own volition. A few weeks ago we went to the dentist who noted the misalignment it was causing which we emphasised to her but seemed to have little effect. Then we saw the Wallace and Gromit film and afterwards I (nasty mummy alert!) asked if she wanted WereRabbit teeth - she said no and we left it at that. On holiday she became noticeably less reliant on her thumb and her teddy comforter and yesterday she announced she no longer sucks her thumb as she is not a baby. Whether the stress of going back to school and tiredness will cause a relapse only time will tell but we very proudly examined her lovely, big girl unsucked thumb this morning !

Too right I do Tommy!

Their teeth look abosultely fine to me. I can see what the dentist is driving at, but I just can't be on at three children night and day over that.

The paint on stuff is a good idea if you want to remind yourself not to to it absent mindedly, but they seem to consciously want and need to do it. They are trying hard not to, but get distressed about it at bedtime if I tell them 'no'. They never had dummies (which I suppose you can remove) but have always loved their thumbs (or middle fingers in ds's case).

Hypnotism perhaps?! Or maybe they need to invent a thumb patch - like a nicotine patch

The lotion stuff only works for a non-dedicated sucker... those of us with drive suck through the yukkiness

I sucked my fingers till I was about eight and never had a brace.

One dentist I know says it's hereditary and more to do with your jaw shape than whether you have a dummy or suck fingers or thumb anyway. If you needed a brace and didn't finger or thumb suck, it could be your DD will whether she stops now or not. Let her do it, I'd say

Lol at the WereRabbit tactic! Well done to your dd Liz

Tinygang

Isucked my thumb until I was 11, my parents tried everything but the only thing that made me stop was pure peer pressure as I started Scouting at that age and was ashamed of scuking my thumb in front of everyone...I still ahd my monkey comforter in bed till...I left the house for uni .....

I have had to wear braces (which did nothing) and my upper jaw has coem forward a bit, and it's not in line with the bottom jaw anymore. It's never been a problem really, I was bullied for just about everything else but this, but I do think that some kind of damage is a real possibillity....

DS1 (6.5) has reshaped his teeth alignment, his jaw and also the roof of his mouth through thumb sucking. My onlyhpe is that it has actually helped because both my brothers and DH needed teeth removing for space reasons. I, a thumb sucker, didn't. Or maybe I simply had a large mouth.

Either way, chances are that he would have needed braces anyway. We've tried so hard to get him to stop with horror rabbit teeth stories, "bullying", bribing, stop 'n' grow stuff, "you're not a baby any more" etc etc but he's stuck with it (hahaha!)

i sucked until 13 as did my two borhtes, the youngest got a mishaped jaw as he hooked his index finger around his nose and pulled it out
DD sucks her thumb and I've no intention of stopping unless something similar happens

brothers...

umm, tell them every suck takes their darling mother a step closer to death.

TrickorFlum - excellent!

hey, webmum is me! I sucked mine until I was 11 and stopped due to embarrassment at school too! My Mum tried everything she could think of to make me stop (e.g. painting the nail with stop and grow)...but it just made me very stressed. I told my dentist a while back that I sucked my thumb all that time and he was amazed - he'd never guessed I had been a thumb sucker.

Sorry I don't think there's much you can do.

Ds1 has amazing willpower and just stopped, like that, no more... Incredible! He also had me in tears when he rejected his faithful monkey on his 12th birthday by turning its face to the wall and declaring himself too old for the monkey now. Ds2 is quite another matter. Did manage to give up thumb sucking for a few weeks by putting a finger puppet or stickers on his finger at night (his idea). I was so glad, then it all started up again. DD was a button twiddler (on her pyjamas) which is far more socially acceptable!