My 6 year old son has been sucking his thumb since minutes after he was born. He is getting a little better, but still sucks when he is tired or bored (ex. watching t.v.). I thought he would stop when he started school but the other kids don't tease him like I thought they would :rolleyes:
I would appreciate any advice.

:wave: My 6 year old son has been sucking his thumb since minutes after he was born. He is getting a little better, but still sucks when he is tired or bored (ex. watching t.v.). I thought he would stop when he started school but the other kids don't tease him like I thought they would :rolleyes:
I would appreciate any advice.
:wave: hello,this caught my eye right away and it reminded me of myself when i was younger....i sucked my thumb for the longest time also.but for myself back then nothing worked for me....all the bribery in the world didn't even work...what i needed to do was to quit on my own.......i don't know about your child.but i was a very shy child and sucking my thumb and holding a blanket was a security thing...but my best advise to you is to try and keep him preoccupied....like playing board games with him,read a book,or if he talks on the telephone have him call a friend or relative to just say hi....or another thing you could try is give him a popsicle,or put a straw in his milk or whatever he drinks before bed....that could ease the temptation to suck his thumb..good luck to you and your child.but don't be discouraged if it doesn't happen right away..... just try not to pressure him..but you can try and explain to him what it would do to his teeth also......good luck and please keep me posted....

:wave:
:wave: hello,this caught my eye right away and it reminded me of myself when i was younger....i sucked my thumb for the longest time also.but for myself back then nothing worked for me....all the bribery in the world didn't even work...what i needed to do was to quit on my own.......i don't know about your child.but i was a very shy child and sucking my thumb and holding a blanket was a security thing...but my best advise to you is to try and keep him preoccupied....like playing board games with him,read a book,or if he talks on the telephone have him call a friend or relative to just say hi....or another thing you could try is give him a popsicle,or put a straw in his milk or whatever he drinks before bed....that could ease the temptation to suck his thumb..good luck to you and your child.but don't be discouraged if it doesn't happen right away..... just try not to pressure him..but you can try and explain to him what it would do to his teeth also......good luck and please keep me posted....

Thanks for all the good advice. I had already tried bribery. It only worked for short term. I had figured out that he had to want to stop. I will try the straw at bedtime, especially. :)

I too was a thumb sucker until the age of about 8. I had a fair size overbite at this point and the dentist and my mother wanted to get me into a retainer. That was not going to happen until I stopped sucking my thumb so the dentist put a kind of stopper in my mouth. I do not recall what it was called but it was not removable and it came down from the roof of my mouth(about 1/2 way back)in the shape of a U and I my mom got my initials in it. Basically I couldn't get my thumb far enough into my mouth to suck on it! It sounds cruel but I don't recall it bothering me other than it was hard to say "s" sounds. I remember the other option available on that thing was that you could have it made with something on it to ***** your thumb when it hit it, now that is cruel. I also don't recall how long I had to wear it, it may have only been a couple of months.

Note: I am pretty sure that I only sucked my thumb when I went to bed and I was aware that I was doing it. I do not however, recall doing it during the day so this may have made the process a little faster.

My 6 yo. daughter was told to stop sucking by the dentist, and she wanted to but it was a hard habit to break. We put a sock over her hand, which was a constant reminder not to suck during the daytime, and a barrier at night . Good Luck!

Hey I know you guys haven't responded to this post latley but I sucked on my two fingers until a month before I turned 14. I got a removable plate expander at that time (which was just like a retainer) so I couldn't suck on my fingers anymore because it just felt too akward. I had my expander on for a year and once I didn't have to wear it anymore I never went back to sucking my fingers, I had not interest in doing it anymore. But, I had an open bite before and I think sucking on my fingers contributed to my open bite. It's hard to just stop doing it though because it's just a bad habit. But once I physically couldn't do it anymore, I never went back to it.