Moo. Moms with thumb suckers, come in please.

[styme46]

Ds had his first experience with the dentist yesterday. We were told to try and get ds to stop sucking his thumb before 5 so he doesn't do any permanent damage to his teeth that would require orthodontics when he's older. Right now, he usually only sucks his thumb when he's tired/trying to go to sleep.

Tips, tricks, ideas, success stories on how to get him to stop?

[revolution]

No clue. My kid is 7 1/2 and she still sucks her thumb when she is tired. It's less now than it used to be. I will gently remind her to stop if she doesn't need it. She did come up with a *great* idea the other day and told me if I bought her a binky to use, she wouldn't suck her thumb anymore. lol. no kid.

But, her dentist and pedi both said not to worry too much about it. To just gently remind her. Forcing her to stop could cause more/different issues and she will stop when she is ready and just gentle reminders.

[gummybear]

Ughhh no advice. We pulled out the yucky nail polish (Mavala Stop) which works great, but DD sucks away if it wears off or we forget it. Our dentist mentioned they can insert a retainer like device to stop it but that seems a little extreme

[knx9211]

I'm only here because I sucked my thumb until I was in third grade. I had a day time thumb and a night time thumb. Sorry.

[isabel]

Jun 30, 2015 11:01:00 GMT -5 gummybear said:

Ughhh no advice. We pulled out the yucky nail polish (Mavala Stop) which works great, but DD sucks away if it wears off or we forget it. Our dentist mentioned they can insert a retainer like device to stop it but that seems a little extreme

I had this when I was a kid. The cement they used to attach it came loose and I was able to pop it in and out. I never told anyone and would take it out when I wanted to suck my thumb. Lol I do think it eventually helped though.

[adhdfashion]

Mia sucks on her index finger. Dentist told us the same thing. I haven't any luck at all.
I even put oregano oil on her finger. She sucked on it anyway. :/ I am also up for any suggestions. Lol

[ladystardust]

I sucked my thumb until 2nd grade and was the only sibling of 4 that didn't need braces. My parents tried a lot of stuff to help me quit because it's a reasonable thing to be concerned about.

Ultimately I had to want to stop.

Side note; Sucking my thumb is also how I learned right from left. Sometimes I will still stick my thumbs up when I need to quickly tell a direction.

[FrankieM20]

I sucked my thumb (night time only) until the 4th or 5th grade. It was always a big fight with my parents and they tried everything to get me to stop. I did the retainer thing too and was able to pop it out like a PP mentioned.

Eventually I just stopped doing it and it was a non-issue. I wouldn't go to any extreme measures to try and stop it.

Good luck!!

[Deleted]

We did the nail polish. It was gross, horrible and super hard but it finally worked for us.

[mcsangel2]

I sucked my thumb until....I was too old. I stopped because I had my tongue tie clipped and also had a skin graft and stitches in my mouth for a couple of weeks.

I never needed braces. My brother and sister, who were not thumbsuckers, did.

[styme46]

I can tell that his front, top teeth are currently affected by it, but I kind of feel like as long as he quits before his permanent teeth come in, he will be fine so I'm not in a huge rush to get him to stop. Just thought I'd see if anyone had any tricks up their sleeve.

Right now, if I catch him with his thumb in his mouth, I just try to give him something to do to distract him. But I obviously can't do that when he's in his bed. He does have a lovey that he uses too, but that is in addition to the thumb, not in lieu of it.

[mandymay]

My daughter didn't thumb suck she sucked her finger. The day after her third birthday we used the bitter nail polish on the index finger she sucked, but she just started sucking other fingers so we ended up putting it on all of them every couple of days. My husband put it on his nails as well. It worked for us within two weeks.

Along with the nail polish we talked with her about what the dentist had said about her teeth and that she needed to stop to help her teeth. The talking helped to reinforce the idea that she was bigger now and needed to stop sucking her finger.

[spwspw]

We started talking about it with DD when she was 3.5, at first just reminding her to take her thumb out of her mouth whenever we saw her with it, but that backfired and made her anxious. Then we decided to just talk about quitting, and after she got a little comfortable with the idea, we asked her if she was ready to stop during the day at least. She agreed, and did well stopping during the day. But she would fiend for it at night, lol. Then we talked up her 4th birthday a TON, and how she was getting to be a big girl etc, and said she would have to stop sucking her thumb at night. I think it helped that she loved putting nail polish on, and I would never let her put it on her thumbs because she sucked them so much. So that was part of the deal too, that she could finally put nail polish on her thumbs.

Honestly, I was shocked she stopped, she was a fervent thumb sucker from 4 months.

[Chloride Kate]

I'm not sure he is old enough to understand the process, and I do think that helps quite a bit. My daughter first saw her dentist at 3, and we started with gentle reminders when we noticed. Every now and again we would talk about how her dentist said she needs to stop so her teeth are happy and always reiterated that we know it is so hard, but that we will remind you and you just do your best to keep trying. It worked most of the time in the moment, but certainly didn't make her stop the habit.

Around the time she turned 4, I revisited the issue with her dentist and she said let's just try to get her to stop during the day. My daughter was on board with trying, so we got the Mavala Stop polish, and as long as we re-apply every two days, she has stopped cold turkey, even at night. If it wears off, every now and again I'll see her sucking her thumb in her sleep. I feel like if I can be really good about staying on top of the polish for a few months, it will all be a thing of the past.

Thumbs are so hard because you can't take them away, but I really wouldn't worry too much about it at this stage. Good luck!