Thumb sucking problem?

Question

heyy my youngest brother is like 6 and he sucks his thumb ALL the time and since he's going to go to 1st grade, we don't want him sucking his thumb all the time in class. do you have ANY possible ways i can make him quit??? PLEASE HELP!

Answer 1

put vinegar on on his fingers while he's asleep. vinegar or lemon juice. works everytime

Answer 2

Nope.  Kinda like smoking.  It is a habit.   Either peer pressure is going to make him stop (they taunt him) [or he will whip out his blanket and drop them to the ground.   So says Charlie Brown about Linus.]

   There could be a problem at home that causes him to go this comforting route.

Answer 3

My stepdaughter sucks her thumb nonstop to the point sometimes she gives herself a blister. People who say not to worry about it at this age, I really disagree. Because not just due to messing up their teeth or causing a possible difficult in speaking, but kids WILL make fun of the child if they’re sucking their thumb. Kids are ruthless nowadays, even at age 6.

My stepdaughter’s mother tried hot sauce and that did NOT work. The child is now terrified of hot sauce and if you bring it out, she starts to cry. It also didn’t help because she would resort to sucking her fingers instead of her thumb.

She’s now 5 yrs old and is well aware of her thumb sucking problem.  We did this one thing back when she was 3 ½ yrs old and took her to Disney. We had dinner with the princesses and Cinderella told her that princesses don’t suck their thumbs. She told her that they were long princess gloves and it makes it very hard to suck your thumb with those beautiful gloves on. .  Not too long ago, “Cinderlella” (my best friend) called her again to remind her and talk to her about how important it is to be a princess and that we can’t suck our thumbs. My stepdaughter had the WORLD’s biggest smile on her face and even now if we say “What did Cinderella say” she remembers and takes her thumb out.

It’s hard to watch your child 24/7 in regards to the thumb. So we have now put stickers on her thumbs. Princess ones. We wrap them around her thumb and it bothers her mouth and scratches her if she tries to suck her thumb. We only do it for small periods of time like 10 mins or so. But I give her one warning and then pull out the stickers. Her thumb sucking decreased during that time. It just makes her more aware and other kids don’t have stickers on their thumbs so she really does try harder…..

I wish you luck…it’s certainly not easy!

Answer 4

My child also have problems with that.

We decided to put a little juice of chili while he was busy sleeping. He cried, but he the next day, we noticed that he's not thumb-sucking anymore.

Answer 5

I dont know what its called but ive heard of stuff to put on finger nails that tastes disgusting so he wont like the taste of his thumb anymore.Otherwise, just keep telling him that he's too big now to suck his thumb, point out that the other children in his class wont suck their thumbs because they are all big boys now xx

Answer 6

The more you fuss about it the more insecure and self conscious he will be and the more he will need to suck to make himself feel better.  Better he should suck his thumb until he is 20 than find some other ways I can think of to make himself feel better when he is anxious.  What is it to you if he sucks his thumb in school?  He may be teased and embarrassed but better to be teased by his peers at age six than made to feel unacceptable by  his family who are supposed to love him unconditionally.  that kind of betrayal will haunt him to his grave.  If you really want to help him tell him about germs and insist that he wash his hands before he puts anything in his mouth, including his thumb.

Answer 7

well that happened to a kid i babysat. the parents brought her to the orthodontist and got this pointy device that makes it uncomfortable and hard to suck her thumbs.. you can try that