Preschoolers and thumb sucking. What are doing to encourage them to stop?

[Bigmama4Jesus]

Those of us who have children who suck their fingers that you can't take away all understand. Add on the strong willed personality, and it is frustrating.

My daughter never took to pacifiers, so we did not force her. We thought we were doing good until she found her thumb. She is three now and going to be four in July and she is still sucking that thumb.

We tried to use that nail biting stuff you paint on her nails. It is clear and brushes on like nail polish. We even had convinced her it was clear nail polish just so she would let us put it on her. That was an awful experience. She gagged and in some cases even threw up but never gave up sucking her thumb.

I had it suggested to use adult nail polish to do her nails. That did not work, even after showing her how it messed up her pretty nails.

Recently we told her that her hands had germs and she did not need to put them in her mouth. Later, she sent her Daddy to ask me, "If I was my hands can I suck my thumb?" We could not help but laugh at how clever she was to think of a way around that. What else could I say but, "No, even if you wash your hands you still can not suck your thumb."

Just a few minutes ago I tried to explain to her that she will almost be four. I showed her my four fingers. Then I held up five and told her that when she is five years old she will start to loose her baby teeth. She said, " I don't want to loose my baby teeth." I reminded her of her cousin who has lost hers and told her it happens to everyone. I explained that she will loose her baby teeth to get her big girl teeth and that she did not want to be still sucking her thumb when those come in. I explained how I sucked on my fingers when I was little, and had an over bite, or messed up teeth, and kids at school made fun of me. I think she understood enough of that to get the point. I asked her if we could work together on that. I would help remind her if she would try not to suck her thumb so she won't mess up her big teeth when they come in.

I know this may seem like it was too much for her to understand, but sometimes you just never know. Take her comment about the germs. Sometimes they understand and are smarter than we give them credit for. Let's just hope this last idea helps to encourage her to at least try to stop. If not I will have to come up with something else. What have you tried? Was it successful or did it not work with your child?

[CafeMom Admin]

May. 3, 2009 at 6:11 PM

Hi Bigmama4Jesus,

We saw that you were looking for advice on thumbsucking.  You should check out this group, Advice for Moms.  There are lots of members in there who can help you out.

You may also want to try Preschooler Moms. 

|The CafeMom Admin Team