Mom to Mom

[MalteseMomma]

I outgrew it at age 35...........yes 35 when I had to have my teeth removed

and that's the truth! I would tell everyone if I die ,remember to put my thumb in my mouth before you close my casket!

btw, it did not change my teeth formation at all.I had beautiful healthy teeth. I lost them in an accident.

[fitfuninformed]

On 3/30/2015 MalteseMomma said:

I outgrew it at age 35...........yes 35 when I had to have my teeth removed

and that's the truth! I would tell everyone if I die ,remember to put my thumb in my mouth before you close my casket!

btw, it did not change my teeth formation at all.I had beautiful healthy teeth. I lost them in an accident.

Ok then.

[hovis]

Tabasco Sauce.

[Karnerblue]

I don't know what the answer to the problem is as there are many books and doctors and people in general that will tell you what worked for them. But personal experience is that I was a thumb sucker from the time I was born. I was born with my thumb in my mouth. My mother never did anything to prevent it. I guess she felt that babies do this to soothe themselves. So I sucked my thumb until I was in the 8th grade. Only at home and at night. My father worked the midnight shift and he used to try and pry my thumb out of my mouth but could not. My older brother used to punch me in the arm when he would catch me!

I finally had to have braces on my four front teeth. So I knew then I had to stop. And I did. But still, to this day, sometimes I will wake in the middle of the night and my thumb is in my mouth. I have, at times through my adulthood, sucked my thumb at night when I was very sad or upset.

None of this probably helps but I thought I would share my experience.

[GloriBee]

On 3/16/2015 ccassaday said: What about rewarding her for not s u c k I n g her thumb. I remember my niece slept with a pacifier until she was 2.5. I remember her mom taking her to get a special treat if she gave her pacifiers to grandma. It was so cute when she handed them to grandma.

Positive reinforcement will always work better than negative. I definitely agree about rewarding. I also see the OP mentioned something about a star chart. Good idea. You could set it up where once she gets a certain number of stars she would get a treat. I would say not to go "cold turkey"--baby steps. See if she could go an hour, then two, etc. As someone commented, the night will be hard. You will not see her and she will be s u c k i n g her thumb without even knowing.

This is tough because it is not only a habit, but it is also a security blanket. As we know, children tend to s u c k their thumb when they are upset, or overtired.

[hyacinth003]

It is no joke because my daughter used a pacifier way longer than is usual.

Since she had a lot of other issues, I didn't take it away.

She had to have lots of expensive orthodontia due to the effects on her mouth.

If the dentist is saying it is causing problems, BELIEVE it!

I would try positive things first, but they can slip their thumb in their mouth any time!

Hyacinth

[SarahW]

My youngest son sucked his thumb until he was about 6 years old; it did not affect his teeth or his bite. I did not discourage him at all and never made an issue of it. He has beautiful naturally straight teeth.

[LilacTree]

I remember a photo years ago of Prince William s*u*c*king his mother's two forefingers. Perhaps they do this in England, so maybe you can try that.

[QwertyOG]

There is a really helpful book called "David Decides: No More Thumbsucking." I think it may be out of print, but there are tons of used ones on Amazon.

[Cyndog]

I guess I'm one of the few whose parents never stopped them because I still do. It has given me a slight overbite, but oddly enough that was the first thing that attracted my husband and other guys over the years. It's not something I even think about during waking hours so I never had a problem in school or anything. Of course, I wouldn't advocate it, ha, ha, but I turned out okay.