Breaking the thumbsucking addiction

[m&jsmom]

Please help! I am a new member and really could use some advice from moms that have been through the thumbsucking addiction with their 3 yr. old.

My son was just at the dentist last week and has developed a crossbite and protruding front teeth (buckteeth). The dentist advised stopped sucking his thumb right away to possibly avoid permanent damage, though it may already be too late.

We talked to my son about it and he agreed to try to stop. We are using an incentive chart and he is doing fantastic during the day. We keep him really busy and don't make him nap. At night, he has a terrible time getting to sleep, even though he is really tired and normally would be asleep in about 2 minutes with his thumb. We sit in the room for an hour beside his bed as he tossed and turns and fiddles with his fingers. If he wakes up during the night, we go through the same hour or more process till he goes back to sleep.

He had a special blanket that he always sucked his thumb with. We won't let him have that now because we are afraid it will be too strong an urge to suck his thumb with it. To compensate, we are giving him extra hugs and loves as much as we can.

Has anyone had any experience with finding an alternative way to help former thumb-sucking preschoolers get to sleep?

[MaryL]

Put a band-aid on both thumbs at night....

Play soft music on the radio/tape...

I never had success with that "nail polish" that tastes bitter...my ds still sucked his fingers. With my ds we realized that he only sucked his fingers when he was also holding his "blanket"...so we removed the blanket, and he instantly stopped sucking his fingers.

Sorry I'm not much more help!

[vea29]

I was gonna suggest substatuting something like a stuffed animal. My friends daughter is going through something similar.

She twirls her mothers hair for like an hour to go to sleep. I suggested giving her a doll whos hair she could twirl instead...have not had much success yet.

Her 7 year old also sucks her thumb when she's really tired...I don't know if she does it at night though still. We are always trying to get her to stop.It's sort of a logic thing now. We explain about the teeth problem and it kind of helps.

Good luck!

[PamE]

Okay, I'm probably in the minority here, but is two minutes of thumb sucking at night to help him get to sleep really going to make a big difference? Especially if braces are inevitable (sp?) anyway. It might be confusing to the poor little guy though to not be able to suck his thumb during the day, but it be okay at night.

[darlene]

Originally posted by m&jsmom

At night, he has a terrible time getting to sleep, even though he is really tired and normally would be asleep in about 2 minutes with his thumb. We sit in the room for an hour beside his bed as he tossed and turns and fiddles with his fingers. If he wakes up during the night, we go through the same hour or more process till he goes back to sleep.



All three of our children sucked their thumbs...no dental problems...lucky perhaps.

I'm totally with PamE on this one....in all reality 2 minutes of thumb sucking a night is not going to do any damage! If it makes for a peaceful sleep for him and you...I say let him! When we checked on the kids before we went to bed, we would pull out any thumbs that may be still in their mouths.

A caution with putting bandaids on their thumb....if you are going to use this method, be sure they are very secure bandaids...wouldn't want the bandaid sucked off and swallowed! 8o

Good luck!

:)