My 8 yr old daughter still sucks her thumb...what can i do to make her stop?

Question

i don't want her teeth to get more messed up than they are already.

Answer 1

show her pictures of what some kids faces turn out like, from sucking their thumb.

Answer 2

First of all, have you determined why your daughter sucks her thumb? Crooked teeth, although they can be expensive to repair, are not what's being most damaged. Sucking her thumb is just a symptom of anxiety and fear and possibly her need to feel safe.

When does she suck her thumb? At night, during nap time? You may need to determine what times of the day, what situations exist when she puts her thumb in her mouth, and whether or not the problem may be compounded by yelling, screaming, demeaning her for sucking her thumb, "You're too old to do that; stop that, you're ruining you teeth; take your thumb out of your mouth, you baby."

When she's probably feeling already overwhelmed by feelings of being intimidated or "bad" or less than special in you eyes when she sucks her thumb, if she is getting those negative messages to make her STOP sucking her thumb, then she feels like she's even more LESS than she thought in the first place.

Let up---leave it alone until you can determine why you're child is suffering.

Answer 3

My little sister had this problem. There is a product you can buy that you can put on her thumbnail and it tastes so bad she will instinctively take it out. My sister wouldn't go to sleep this way, the sucking was subconscious, and this stuff worked wonders.

A lot of parenting sites also suggest behavioral modifications (geared towards 4 and 5 yr olds) for when they do it while awake.

Answer 4

Tell her the sad story, which is true, about the mother who had trouble with her young daughter and instead of talking to a trained professional in the medical field like a real doctor about problems and questions, she instead asked lay-people on the Internet and got really horrible advice! That should make her pull her thumb out of her mouth.

Answer 5

Damn I can't believe you haven't received a real answer yet. Anyway you have to go to the dentist and have them put in the dental dam that prevents the thumb from entering the mouth. My parents had to use it on me I'm embarrassed to admit but it worked fast. I was six by the way. Also the bad tasting stuff does not work at all.

Answer 6

Talk to a child counselor. There may be one at her school. Also there's a commercial product that's made just for that, I don't know what it's called. You put some on the thumb and it tastes so bad the child doesn't want to suck it. A pharmacist could steer you to that. Good luck.

Answer 7

At night while she is sleeping put her least favorite food on her thumb and when she wakes up and starts sucking on it, she'll realize that it taste's awful and she wont do it again because she''ll be to scared, thinking that she's going to have the same awful taste . If it doesn't work the first time then keep on doing it till it works.

Answer 8

Put something on it that tastes really bad. Make her wear gloves. Tell her you will start making her wear a pacifier to school. Do whatever it takes. I sucked my thumb when I was a kid and I spent 3 years in the orthodontist's chair.

Answer 9

talk 2 her dr and her dentist they may have some ideals.in my sons case nothing I did made him stop,he would sneak n do it when no one was looking.he did this till he was almost 18.we even took him 2 a counselor thinking that maybe there was something going on we did not know,but he is well adjusted in all aspects except for the thumb sucking. good luck.

Answer 10

allow her. I did an same imagine at the same time as i became youthful. (Now, if skipping foodstuff receives to be more effective of an problem, get help.) Thumb sucking is amazingly comforting and an habit it truly is amazingly not common to renounce (same as with alcohol or smoking.) I in no way were given crooked tooth, I in no way did it in the front of human beings.....I in simple terms did it contained in the privateness of my homestead. at the same time as she is waiting, she will be in a position to end. i finished previous due in intense college and that i grew to develop into out in simple terms effective. allow the habit be until eventually it starts off ensuing in different themes. There are worse issues in existence than thumb sucking. (between the failings that made me provide up became after I had my information tooth pulled.)