Thanks for the Comments!
I love to receive comments to my writing--both on the blog and privately. It's good to know that thumb-sucking doesn't always hurt the child's teeth. And using a pacifier is a great suggestion! Thumb-sucking is pretty engrained for Kola. He's actually raised a callous on his thumb that's 1/4 inch high.One of our older kids sucked her thumb until she turned eight. For her birthday, I went to Marshall Fields (in the good old days) and bought her some very beautiful confirmation gloves--white with embroidery. She was so excited to wear them every night that she wasn't tempted to pull them off to suck her thumb. And besides, as she told me, turning eight years old was a milestone and she felt she was too old to suck her thumb any more. It worked, sort of, since the thumb-sucking stopped and the nail-biting began!
I would appreciate other suggestions for helping the child stop their thumb-sucking. It's good to tuck ideas away for a future date.
posted by Stahlkes @ 12:51 PM
3 Comments:
The method my family uses successfully is to find something that the child really wants. Mine wanted a Cabbage Patch Doll. She received a sticker on a chart for every hour she went without sucking her thumb. The first week, lapses were acceptable. The second week stickers were deducted when she forgot. We attached a value to each sticker and she earned her doll. She even slept with a sock on her hand so she wouldn't slip. Another quick fix is to have them play with pennies, the taste of copper ruins the taste of the thumb, but they soon realize that washing their hands fixes it.
As a dental assistant, I certainly can't say much good about finger-sucking or pacifiers, though I know there isn't always detrimental effects. I remember I quit sucking my two fingers when I got a cut and didn't like sucking the Band-aid. I like the chart idea, though!
-Christina from Philly
For girls, promising them a manicure or that they can wear nail varnish (clear or unobtrusive if you don't like the idea of gaudy nails) if they stop the thumb sucking.
Chewing gum (sugarless) might be an acceptable substitute for boys -- it's soothing, but not so bad for the teeth. As long as they don't stick it on the bedpost!
Adoptive mom
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