How do I get my 4-year-old daughter to quit sucking her thumb?

Question

We just moved out of state so I wasn't going to push it, but I know eventually before she starts school, we will need to work on breaking her of this habit!

Answer 1

There is a product you can buy at most pharmacies that you can paint on her nails...it is non toxic but very yucky tasting. I believe it is called Thum. Here is the website:

Answer 2

I'm laughing because , I didn't stop sucking my thumb until I was 23.Crazy I know , I tried everything from nail polish to white out with no success. I would try so hard to fall asleep without sucking my thumb but somehow i woke up everyday with it stuck in my gob.It was a comfort thing , your little girl will give up when shes ready or when she is too embarrassed to do it in front of anybody.Me ,I just couldn't help it.Finally I pierced my tongue and couldn't do it anymore.Now I have the overbite and a callous on my thumb from 23 years of good old thumb sucking.Don't worry though ,I was just a exception to the rule most kids stop at five or six.

Answer 3

My daughter used to suck her thumb. I was so worried about it. In retrospect, I wish I would not have given it so much attention. My daughter eventually stopped on her own. I would tell her that she was not allowed to do it at school because of germs, but that she could at bedtime and when she needed to comfort herself. We all have methods we use to comfort ourselves, as she ages, she will find more appropriate ways. By the way, my daughter didn't have buck teeth as a result of thumb-sucking.

Answer 4

Your worried that it is socially unexceptable, that other parents will look at you like your not a good parent instead of the fact it is a comfort to your daughter.....It is soooooo easy, for someone to judge how to parent someone elses child, and say, "she shouldn't be doing that"......meanwhile, they aren't the perfect parent either....you can listen to all the self appointed doctor spocks, on child rearing, or you can just tell anyone who wants to say your child shouldn't be doing that to kiss your a.....the problem is the other kids. To hell, what the other parents think. This is your child.....not theirs....Instead of hot sauce, etc. you need to talk to your daughter, and tell her it is not good for her. For her Teeth, that it can make her teeth unhealthy...that sucking her thumb, isn't good for her thumb even.....We worry so much what virtual strangers think, when who gives a rats a**.....they don't live in your house or pay your bills, yet are so easy to judge to make their not so great parenting skills, get shoved under the table.....Let the finger point at someone else......Your daughter may need that comfort zone.....My daughter wet the bed. I did NOT make a BIG DEAL out of it, it was subtlely addressed, I didn't care who knew......that is Their problem.....I said to her "its ok, mom will wash the sheets, lets take a bath, and it will be fine.....she was at ease, even though she was soooooo young, she was embarrassed, NO way was I going to let my daughter feel it was shameful!!!!!!!.....It stopped on its own.....just my opinion.....

Answer 5

do not pay interest to human beings taht say it doesn't damage them, because it does. My daughter is 5 and we were informed about 5 months in the past by the dentist that if she doesn't provide up sucking her thumb, they could might want to placed an equipment contained in the roof of her mouth which will poke her thumb. even as she sucks her thumb, it pushes up on the roof of her mouth and that's making her top jaw very slender. She has tried preventing, yet I in certain circumstances seize her with it in her mouth even as she's slumbering and that i imagine she's discovered to cover even as doing it otherwise. We bypass decrease back to the dentist next month and that i imagine the software will finally end up in her mouth. Eeeek. So, the thanks to provide up - properly, you could purchase the undesirable tasting nail polish, which will artwork till they preserve in mind that they could peal it off. Then it doesn't do any reliable. you could placed warm sauce on her finger, yet she'll probable get use to it quite right now. i wager my advice will be to take her to a dentist and note if that's surely causing any complications. no longer all thumb sucking deforms tooth/jaw. It truly relies upon on the attitude of their thumb. If she isn't pushing up on the roof of her mouth and out on her the front tooth (which the dentist will comprehend) then it would probable be high quality to easily enable her develop out of it.

Answer 6

I remember when i was a little girl i had that habit of sucking my thumb too,my parents tried everything putting bad tasting things on my thumb (that did not work),everytime they saw me they would hit my hand(i put it back into my mouth when they were not loking),trieing to scare me,but eventually i came to my senses and realized that this is a bad habit and i need to break it soooneror later.and i did.

Answer 7

my little sister wanted to stop sucking her thumb before she went to school, so my mom suggested dipping her thumbs in vineger before she went. My sister was co-operative about it, even though she was only 5, and it totally worked. she's 17 now, and doesn't have buck teeth.

Answer 8

you can probably got to a store and go to the baaby stuff, and there will be some thumb sucking stuff you put on, which tastes bad.

Answer 9

Tell her to stop, and remind her constantly. Put icky tasting things on her tumb, find her another way to comfort herself...

You just have to be consistant and find something that works for her. Its a nasty habit to break.

Answer 10

I don't think you should I've learned that, that's a coping mechanism for a young child dealing with stress.