What is the Best way to get your child to stop sucking on his/her thumb?

Question

Ive tried everything, from bribes to putting her finger in gross tasting things ang nothing seems to work.Ive even tried to tell her that it hurts my feeling but that only worked for so long.

Answer 1

Those are some of the most messed up answers I have ever heard. This person came on here to get advice and most of you people gave real crappy advice. My 3 year old sucks his thumb when he's tired. I don't say anything to him because from experience I know he will stop. A little girl that I used to live next door to sucked her thumb until she went to school and the kids teased her about it then she stopped. It's a habit that they will tire from and half the time don't even realize they are doing. I also wanted to say that I personally find it rediculous to see a child past the age of 2 (and that's pushing it) with a "binky" in their mouth. If you have your child put a "binky" in their mouth to break the thumb sucking and then "lose" the binky one day Guess What the child will start sucking on??? THEIR THUMB!!!! Just let your child out grow it.

Answer 2

Just let her suck her thumb. I was happy when my daughter started using her thumb instead of her paci, because when the paci fell out she'd cry til I put it back in. It's a bit harder for her thumb to fall. : ) It's just something they do to soothe themselves. Don't worry about it til she's a bit older. Over 12 months or so. Then you can put some lemon juice or bitter apple on it. Bitter apple is something you can use to break kids from biting their nails. It tastes bitter so they stop the habit quickly. I'd just wait a while and let her have her thumb. She's only eight weeks after all.

Answer 3

Turn the sucking towards another object such as a binky... so that you can break them of using their thumb. Once enough time has passed, you can incorporate getting rid of the binky. It's easy to lose the binky... but the thumb is always attached.
Fear is another tactic that seems to work with some children. My sister used to give herself hickies on her arm. My father one day told her that if she put another hickie there, that the doctors would have to cut her arm off. She never did it again. I know, a bit drastic, but it worked.
Good luck!

Answer 4

Wait. And don't make a big deal out of it. One of my kids sucked his thumb, and the more we talked about it, the more he did it. When he finally decided it was time to stop, we would catch him sucking his thumb in his sleep. We figured out (after 5 years) that when it was time to stop, he would. We also got to enjoy life more when we weren't so worried about that all the time. Just enjoy her, she's not gonna be this little for very long!

Much Love!!

Answer 5

I still have the Doll that my Great Grandfather bought my Grandmother after she had given up sucking her thumb sometime around 1910.

Answer 6

The best way? I don't know, but if you have the thumb in question amputated, that would certainly work.

With my younger brother, we had this stuff that we put on it that made it taste HORRIBLE, and so he stopped doing it.

But I personally never liked him, and so would have voted for the amputation.

Answer 7

Pepperspay

Answer 8

You can try everything and some kids just have to stop on there own,my 7 year old still does it and we have tried it all.

Answer 9

I used to suck my thumb. What got me to stop was wearing a glove to bed (my main thumb sucking time) and my mom got all of my teachers to give me a signal to stop if I did it at school.

Answer 10

At your local drug store you should be able to find some stuff for nail biters, thumb suckers, ect... It tastes really bad and what you do is dip her thumbs into it. She should stop.