Sucking is a natural reflex and infants and young children may use thumbs, fingers, pacifiers and other objects on which to suck. In order to avoid long-term skeletal effects of thumb/object sucking, we recommend that the habit be discouraged by three years of age.
A few suggestions to help your child get through thumb sucking:
Please keep in mind that a child must be motivated to stop for any of the below strategies to work.
Keep it positive. It is difficult for a grown up to break a habit, and hard for a child too. Patience and understanding with positive praise when your child is not sucking is best.
- Try to determine the underlying cause and address it. Children tend to suck their thumbs when they are feeling insecure or bored.
- If pacifier use is the issue, try trimming the tip of the pacifier. This will deflate the pacifier and make it less appealing. Gradually trim off more and more until the child no longer wants the pacifier.
- Reading books, such as David Decides, Berenstain Bears and the Bad Habit, or Thumb Love may help.
- A reward calendar where the child can track days they have avoided thumb sucking with marks or stickers. Agree on a motivating reward ahead of time and after 30 consecutive days, enjoy the reward.
- Reminder finger polish, like Mavala, available at Amazon.com, has a bitter taste which serves as a reminder not to place fingers or thumb in the mouth. Mavala is applied regularly 2-3 times a day on the nail and surrounding skin. This helps the child to become aware of their habit to help them to stop.
- Dr.Khoury and her team can encourage your child to stop sucking and explain why it is important to stop the habit too.
Suggestions for nighttime:
Try placing a band-aid on the favorite finger or a sock or mitten gently taped at the base of the favored hand or an ace bandage gently wrapped around an elbow (which prevents the arm from bending at the elbow to get a thumb in). These can be tracked on a reward calendar for each night the child is able to keep it on and dry.
These suggestions are usually enough to successfully stop the habit. If it is not enough, Dr. Khoury can help with other strategies, such as fabricating a habit appliance.
