Thumb sucking and finger sucking are some of the most common habits children adopt. A natural sucking instinct leads some babies to suck their thumbs during their first few months of life, some even before birth. Babies use sucking order to get nutrition, comfort themselves or when they feel hungry, afraid, restless, quiet, sleepy, or bored. They experience certain pleasurable sensations when they suck their thumb.
As babies grow, they learn a lot about their bodies and the world around them through sucking. They suck on their fingers, clothing, and toys. From this action they learn what is pleasing and what is uncomfortable. Since the action is relaxing, it often induces sleep which is why parents notice children sucking their thumbs when they are tired. In fact, many thumb suckers fall asleep more easily and are able to put themselves back to sleep quicker, and sleep through the night much earlier than their non-thumb sucking peers.
Parents often begin to worry about a child if he or she continues thumb sucking past age four or five. While it’s perfectly normal to be concerned that the child’s habit reflects poorly on your parenting skills, it’s counterproductive to let your child know how upset you are or use wrong measures to make the child stop thumb sucking.
However, if a child is vigorously thumb-sucking after age five, the child may be at risk for buck teeth, malformation of the sucked fingers or thumbs and fungal infections under the nails. Frequent thumb-sucking can take a social toll once a child starts school. A child who sucks his thumb in school will probably have to put up with the jokes and teasing of classmates. Other potential problems for children who suck their thumb is the possibility of poisoning, if a child touches a toxic substance before inserting a thumb in the mouth. A child may also develop speech problems, including mispronouncing Ts and Ds, lisping, and thrusting out the tongue when talking.
Trying to stop the child from sucking his thumb might be a bit difficult, so the first step to take is to let the child decide it’s a problem and he has to stop. Children have control of their own thumbs when you are not looking. Pressure applied against thumb sucking can turn a natural developmental phase into an ingrained habit.
Here are helpful tips in helping your child stop the habit:
Do not nag or yell. No matter what your child’s age, don’t scold him about his habit. If you’ve been nagging your child about his thumb-sucking, now is the time to call it quits. Don’t mention thumb-sucking unless the child brings it up. Although you may feel frustrated when your child slides back into his or her thumb-sucking behaviour, don’t punish or yell at the child. You will only make him or her nervous and upset, which will probably lead to more thumb sucking.
Tune into your child’s signals. If you want to gently steer your child away from thumb-sucking, take note of what’s going on whenever your child’s thumb goes in her mouth. If your child automatically sucks her thumb when she’s tired, hungry or bored, help her verbalize those feelings and look for other solutions.
Give a reason to quit. If you want your child to quit because you think other children will make fun of him when he starts kindergarten, explain this. It’s easy for a child to see that he probably doesn’t want to be sucking his thumb in front of all those other kids at school. You can also explain that the pressure from the thumb could harm his teeth.
Distractions: Distract your child when you see her putting her thumb in her mouth. If you engage him or her in an activity that requires both hands like crayons or pencils and paper, squishy balls or toys to fiddle with, or models and puzzles to work on, he or she will have to take her thumb out of her mouth to do the task.
Reward success. Offer little treats or rewards-something for your child to work toward in her endeavour to quit the habit, reward your child for progress made towards his or her goal. You and the child can determine ahead of time how many stars she needs to collect before she earns a particular treat, such as a new toy.
Try thumb-painting. For the child who is trying to quit with little success, try some pharmacy products that are safe for children, but contain bad-tasting ingredients like vinegar or pickle juice that jolt the child’s taste buds. But be sure your child doesn’t think of this as a punishment, you can say to your child, ‘here’s some medicine that can really help you when you forget and put your thumb in your mouth.’ Then when he’s engaged in television and sticks his thumb in his mouth out of habit, the bad taste will quickly remind him of what he’s trying to accomplish.
?