Toddler thumb sucking help. (Edited by MNHQ at OP's request).

[ToddleAlong]

My 22 month old is a big thumb sucker and has been since the womb! I know she’ll grow out of that eventually but she also pinches her skin on her neck with her other hand when she does it. I think it stems from breast feeding when she would pinch my skin a bit for comfort, but I weaned very gradually around 12 months and she’s pinched her own skin since.

Has anyone else’s done this? Any tips for weaning her off the pinching? It worries me as I don’t want her to hurt herself plus I know it gets funny looks from other parents when she does it.

My little boy was both a thumb sucker and a neck pincher. He grew out of both with no input from me. Try not to worry!

Thank you! X

Honestly, try not to worry. She will grow out of it, it's just her self-soothing and it's fine.

Thank you, you are right I’m sure!

Don’t make a big thing of it.

I still remember my mother berating me for thumb sucking, putting horrible tasting liquid on my thumb and taping it up with yellow sellotape.

Did not stop me sucking my thumb but did impact on our relationship!

I’m sure she will likely grow out of it, but - in case it’s helpful - on the thumb sucking my eldest was a thumb sucker and the dentist said so long as she stopped by the time she was four it shouldn’t impact teeth. He suggested the anti nail biting stuff you paint on. I used this just shy of her turning four and she’d given up within a few days. That said, she still needed three years of orthodontic treatment so not sure why I bothered ☺️.

I have two thumb suckers, one is nine and still needs his thumb to go to sleep... Some children take a very long time to grow out of it. It's not true that thumb sucking causes orthodontic issues - my nine year old has perfect teeth and according to our dentist, the teeth straighten themselves as soon as they start to reduce the thumb sucking (they don't even have to stop completely).
22 months is still very little and I would not interfere with what is an important method of self-soothing. The neck-pinching is part of that. People can keep their looks and comments to themselves! When your DC is a bit older, I'd say around 3 or 4, you can start teaching her that it's better not to put her hands in her mouth whenever they're not perfectly clean - that already rules out a lot of places. She'll naturally reduce it over time.

Thank you all! Yes my cousin admitted the other day he still occasionally sucks his thumb at night and he’s nearly 40 😂so 22 months is probs a bit young to start worrying😅