How To Break Your Child's Thumb Sucking Habit

Suffolk Center for Speech has some fantastic, simple tips to help your child give up their thumb sucking habit. If your child's thumb sucking addiction is getting in the way of your life, your happiness, or your well being, then read on. If their thumb sucking addiction really doesn't effect you, but you just want them to stop, then you, also, should read on.

Infants get a self-rewarding feeling of safety and happiness when they suck their thumbs. They do it in the womb, even before they are born. It's a natural habit for an infant, but should only be a phase. If a child continues to suck their thumb as they age, their mouth and the alignment of their teeth can develop improperly, especially when permanent teeth are growing in. Avid thumb sucking can cause a child's upper teeth to protrude. Buck teeth are cute when you're little, but not when you start school. A failure to cease thumb sucking can result in a lisp, and it also prevents a child from learning alternative ways of coping with stress. It's fine when your child is an infant, but it's imperative that parents recognize that it is a habit that can cause physical and emotional problems in the future. Most thumb suckers quit around five years old, but if your five year old hasn't stomped the habit, it may be time for an intervention. Here are some tips on how to curb your little one's thumb sucking dependence:

• Wean them off. Don't cut them cold turkey. They probably won't kick the habit, but they might kick you. You can try substituting their thumb with a pacifier (give them a pacifier every time you catch them sucking their thumb, or at bed time). Breaking a pacifier habit happens quicker than breaking a thumb-sucking habit.
• Reward your child as he weens off. Incentives increase the chance of life long thumb-sucking abstinence. Find what motivates your child, and use it to motivate them to take their thumb out their mouth.
• As you're weening your child, allow them only to suck their thumbs at specific times. Allow them to suck their thumb for a specific amount of time (literally, time it) and decrease that time each day. Reward them for successfully decreasing daily thumb-sucking duration.
• Choose a light punishment for thumb sucking outside of the space and time you specify with your child. For example, tell them they're only allowed to suck their thumb after dinner. If they suck their thumb before dinner, NO DESERT! Tough love. (Try and focus more on rewards than punishments. Rewards have a much higher rate of success in teaching a child than punishment)
• When your child is close to being fully weened off their thumb, introduce them with a better, more socially acceptable hobby. Make sure this hobby occupies both their clamps. Ie: jumping rope, basketball, card games, dressing dolls or GI Joes
• If all else fails, place a soft mitten or glove on your child's hand. Or use a bitter tasting substance on your child's nail, especially during sleep. You may purchase products to deter thumb sucking at your local pharmacy.

If the habit doesn't obviously decrease in about a month, it may be time to consult your physician and/or dentist. Mouth appliances are available which make thumb sucking an uncomfortable experience, which eliminates the self-reward behind thumb sucking. These appliances are relatively inexpensive and may produce quick results.

Written by: Tim Strampfer

Resources

Sharma, VijaiP., Ph.D. "Help to Break the Thumb Sucking Habit," Mind Publications
American Dental Association, Oral Health Topics A-Z, "Thumb sucking"