Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Parenting

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

thumb sucking - how do you stop it?

53 replies

mistressmiggins · 06/02/2008 21:19

my DD is 3 (4 in summer) and sucks her thumb constantly
I'm sure it's affecting her teeth but I just cant get her to stop.
If you pull her thumb out, she puts the other one in.
I have said if she stops, she can choose a toy but that doesnt seem to encourage her.
I am hoping when she starts school in September, she may naturally stop from peer pressure but other than that, I have no idea what to do.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

sugarpear · 08/02/2008 13:54

i never realised it could affect their teeth? dd3 sucks her thumb has done since the day she was born - she is 19 months now-. I have 6 kids and she is the only 1 ever to do it. I hate dummies so none of mine had them either.

I love her sucking her thumb i think she looks so precious.

Although i can imagine when she is older and dating it might not look attractive!!!

PrettyCandles · 08/02/2008 19:23

I also had the attitude 'let them suck if they need, they can always have braces later', however dd's sucking was not just affecting her teeth, but also the structure and development of her jaw. She could not make her upper and lower teeth meet at the front, so struggled to bite off pieces of food, and her molars could not meet on one side, though they met on the other side. Her smile was also very crooked and her speech very blurry on the sibilants. In the six months since she broke the habit her jaw has already straightened out substantially, you can see the bite developing, and her speech is clearer.

Original poster

mistressmiggins · 08/02/2008 19:51

my DD's speech is fine

to be honest, its pressure from others going on about her sucking thumbs and how they gave dummies which they could take away

I will not be stopping DD but will ask the dentist what he thinks

very interesting to hear from all you closet thumb suckers

OP posts:

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Families General parenting

NoNickname · 08/02/2008 19:52

Another thumbs up (no pun intended!) for the Thumb Guard. Worked within a couple of weeks for us and ds has never even tried to suck since. We did it quite young - younger than they recommend, and it was easy.

Isa11 · 08/02/2008 20:55

Do any of your children bite their thumbs? I didn't mind my daughter sucking her thumb (15 months) but she has now started biting it (probably due to teeething). She actually bites it to the point of cutting her skin. This has caused us to take drastic measures -putting a sock on her hand at night. So far, she hasn't figured out how to take it off, but I suspect this won't last. Does anyone know what else to do to prevent biting? Does the biting last long? Can it cause real damage?

discoverlife · 08/02/2008 20:59

I didn't stop sucking my thumb until I was ........30 years old. DH still misses it as he said it was the cutest and sexiest thing ever.
I wish my Mum had done something when I was a kid.

LIZS · 08/02/2008 21:01

show her the Wallace and Gromit Wererabbit film and ask if she wants teeth like that - worked a treat !

SannaG · 08/02/2008 23:34

If you really want her to stop stick her thumbs in mustard powder!! Anyone needing a master torturer I am for hire!!

AuntieBranflake · 10/02/2008 17:59

My husband and I both sucked our thumbs until the age of about 11. Neither of us have crooked teeth, but have shared details of how wrinkly, small and strangely PALE our sucked thumbs were compared to our other one .

I came to a conscious decision to stop when starting secondary school. I guess, like others have said, your DD will stop (or not!) when she wants to.

RustyBear · 10/02/2008 18:09

DD stopped sucking her thumb twice - once when she was 8 and the orthodontist told her she had to, but she started again when the brace came out.

The second time was when she had her lower lip pierced & it hurt - but then she took the piercing out because she preferred her thumb.

I'm not sure she'll ever stop (she'll be 18 next week)- it doesn't seem to bother her. What she is trying to stop (though without much success so far) is her habit of pinching the skin on her knuckle while she does it - it's very red & sore & she hates the look, but can't seem to stop. When I was bf she used to gently pinch my boobs, & later she would do it to the skin on my elbows when she was tired & I was cuddling.

overthehill · 10/02/2008 23:38

I too decided I had to stop sucking my thumb when I went to secondary school and just did so in the summer holidays before. My ds sucked his until he was nearly 8, causing his baby teeth not to form correctly, then I had the brilliant idea that he could stop sucking it as his bronze challenge that he needed to complete in order to graduate from beavers to cubs - and it worked! I always thought it looked sweet, but I was worried about his teeth - although I never had to have a brace myself. I also remember my pale, withered thumb, but as I'm so old it's not so noticeable now!

keepers · 11/02/2008 10:58

Anyone else had any luck with a thumb guard? DD1 now has really protruding baby teeth - don't want new ones to go the same way when they grow in.

keepers · 11/02/2008 10:58

Anyone else had any luck with a thumb guard? DD1 now has really protruding baby teeth - don't want new ones to go the same way when they grow in.

Surfermum · 11/02/2008 11:04

46 year old thumb sucker here. I do it subconsciously and still wake up some mornings with a damp thumb.

I've never needed a brace, although my teeth are slightly out of line (I can't eat spare ribs as I can't bite with my front teeth). That's only in recent years though.

DD was sucking her thumb on her first scan, and still does when she's tired. The only time I intend on trying to stop her is if she does it in situations where she might get teased. I can remember a girl on our first day at Senior School sitting in the class sucking her thumb and we all took the mickey .

PrettyCandles · 11/02/2008 12:52

We used the thumbguard for dd. It was excellent. Yes, they can escape from it if they try hard enough, but the whole point is to do it with the child's cooperation. Dd's thumb still occasionally slips back into her mouth while she's asleep, so if I spot that I just pop the thumbguard back on for a few nights.

When ds1 learned that there is a finger version as well, he wished that we had known about it when he tried to stop himself a few years earlier (he was a finger-sucker). He had tried the nasty-tasting stuff, at his own request, but found the lingering taste too upsetting.

totalmisfit · 11/02/2008 13:01

i wouldn't dream of trying to stop dd sucking her thumb. she's only 2 and it comforts her. i think the more i draw attention to it the more likely she is to keep doing it.

NKffffffffdc7501d1X11241c446fa · 11/02/2008 20:06

39 year old thumb sucker !
No problems at all with crooked teeth & never had a brace ! Apparently according to a dentist friend it depends how you suck your thumb ie position in mouth ect as to whether any damage caused ?!

robot64 · 11/02/2008 22:35

youngest son sucked his thumb and he loved it so much that when it came time for him to crawl he wouldnt do it as it meant removing blessed thumb from his mouth- he stopped all by himself aged 5 when a nursery worker mercilessly teased him about it (i found this out when he stopped) but he still puts anything and everything in his mouth (except food ) aged 9

threestars · 12/02/2008 23:57

Sorry, I can't offer a solution...I gave up thumb-sucking when I was 7 or 8 - when I had to start wearing a brace because my front teeth stuck out. It was sooooo comforting to suck my thumb that the compulsion overrode anything else. (just the memory of it is making me want to stick my thumb in my mouth now!!! )
It could be the telling-off the orthodontist gave me that made me stop? Or my mum's reminding me of how much this was costing my parents?

MollyMilly · 12/07/2009 15:19

We tried the Thumb Guard UK on our daughter over last year's school summer holidays. She completely stopped sucking her thumb. However, after spending two weeks back with her thumb sucking friends she is back sucking again! We are considering trying again as a year later she is more self aware and wants herself to give up. This of course is mainly due to seeing photographs of her mummy with very "goofy" teeth before having to wear an excruciatingly painful brace for 3 years, something I WILL try to protect my daughter from!

gremlindolphin · 12/07/2009 17:37

Hi, sucked my thumb until I was about 14 but not at school or anything. I am now 39 and if I am stressed or starting to get a cold or something I can feel the urge to do it again although I don't! Neither of my children have been thumb suckers although dd2 has a blanket. Now she's 5 she generally only has it as night as we had a talk about it.

jalopy · 13/07/2009 09:35

My dd used to suck her thumb and the structure of her mouth was slowly changing. She had a gap in her bite where her thumb used to sit.

Her dentist encouraged her to try and stop before her adult teeth started to merge.

I also used a woollen glove at night. She was about 4 so was compliant to that idea.

Having just paid £1800 for my son's braces for a different dental reason, I'm glad I stopped her in time.

willali · 13/07/2009 13:21

for those who have said "don't worry they can always get braces later" let me tell you that I have just had to pay £3500 for my former thumb sucking child to get his teeth fixed. No NHS treatement available for cosmetic repairs ladies!

We tried the nasty tasting stuff - he got used to it

We put a plaster on - he sucked the plaster

The only thing that stopped him was a stern chat from the orthodontist (plus the braces)

It is the most difficult thing in the world to stop because they do it subconsciously

Greensleeves · 13/07/2009 13:24

It seems really wrong to me to stop a child from sucking his own thumb - I sort of feel as though it's way too invasive. It's his own thumb and his own mouth.

I take the point about orthodontic problems, I had lots of horrible treatment growing up (not because of thumbsucking) but I wonder whether the psychological impact of being denied such a basic instinctive comfort might be worse although less visible. A person's right to self-soothe shouldn't be taken away IMO.

GooseyLoosey · 13/07/2009 13:33

ds is 6 and sucks his thumb. Whilst I would prefer to let him do it, it has had a dramatic effect on the way in which he says certain sounds (like "s" and "th"). We have spoken to speech therapists about it and the gist of what they say is that ds's tongue has spent so much time squahed by his thumb that it lacks the instinctive movements that it would otherwise have had. So I too am desperate to stop him. I have the thumbguards at home ready for the holidays.

Flip

1 2 3

Swipe left for the next trending thread