What is an effective way to stop a five year old from sucking his thumb??

Answer 1

OMG, I have the same problem! My son is 6. I have asked everyone, and the hot sauce, the nail polish and all the over the counter things dont work. I even tried deoderant!! And, that doesnt work. I have tried to bribe him, I have tried to "flick the back of his hand", I am also exhausted for options. So, he is in school now, and I think peer pressure might do the trick. Now it seems that he is growing out of it, (as I start saving for the braces!!), and he just does it now when he is over tired or sleeping. Actually, I look over my shoulder and there it is in his mouth! Sorry, I give up, but I look forward to seeing other peoples replies. Oh, and I told him that it would fall off, I even told him it would be cut off, because if it was that tastey, we should have it for dinner!!! He obviously has an attachement issue with it, it gives him comfort. The braces later on in life are already basically ordered, so I give up. If he needs to comfort himself, he can go right on ahead. Oh, and I tried banadaging them too... that didnt work either!

Answer 2

The only effective way to stop a child from sucking his thumb is his own desire to stop. I sucked my thumb until I was 11. But what got me to stop was when I asked my grade school counselor if my friends and I could spend the night over her house and she said we could if I quit sucking my thumb for a week. That was the only offer I wanted and accepted to quit sucking my thumb.

But think about this, what things are there in your life that you haven't quit doing? Don't try to bribe him. He knows what he's doing. Give the kid more credit than that.

Ask him to write down 3 things that he would like to do if he quit sucking his thumb. And tell him you will reward him with one thing for not sucking it for a week. He will feel good for 1) accomplishing his own goal and 2) being rewarded for accomplishing a task. Great life skills and well as removing a habit.

Good luck.

Answer 3

Our middle daughter was a thumb-sucker well into elementary school. There was nothing we could do to break her of it, she had to do it herself. We did try several different types of ointment made for preventing nail biting and thumb sucking, but our daughter developed a liking for the taste of all of them. We also tried hot sauce, but she didn't mind that either. We bought several different types of thumb guards and taped them to her hand which seemed to work, but we discovered at night she knew how to take them off and suck her thumb at bedtime then put them back on in the morning. We tried sticker charts and positive encouragement. When she was about your son's age, we made it a rule that she had to suck her thumb in her room. If we saw her sucking it, we had a hand signal we developed that meant "stop sucking your thumb or go to your room". She is now 22 years old and will only say when asked when she stopped sucking her thumb that "she was pretty old". She has good teeth and has not needed braces. Thumb sucking is a habit and my daughter often didn't realize she was doing it, especially when she was tired or doing something sedentary like watching TV. You may need to try several different methods of trying to help your son stop sucking his thumb, but ultimately, he'll need to be the one who wants to stop for it to be successful.

Answer 4

My brother sucked his thumb until he was about eight, and when my older brother and I went to the dentist, my mother asked about what to do to make him stop. The dentist took a tongue presser and broke it in half. Then he used that white tape you use to tape bandages and stuff, and taped them together, so it would fit over his thumb. My brother had to wear it all the time, and he stopped sucking his thumb because it tasted so bad. If your five year old keeps taking it off, you could actually tape it to his or her thumb.

Answer 5

My parents bought a topical ointment that tasted very bad but was not harmful to the child's eyes or skin (as hot sauce would be). I believe you can still buy this, however!, I do not recommend it.

If your child is sucking his thumb, he's using it to give him comfort. How is he going to feel if you force him to stop comforting himself? It would be better to let him suck his thumb - he will almost certainly stop within the next year, once he feels more secure with his surroundings. So don't worry and above all, don't make him feel badly about it (no ridicule or nagging).

Answer 6

for nails and thumb sucking my mom put socks on my hands at night. w/e you do - DON'T GIVE HIM A BINKY (pacifier)... kids get addicted to those things and you don't want a 7 yr old running around with a binky cuz u couldn't get him to stop sucking his thumb... i'd use some sort of reward system even... good luck!!

Answer 7

this was in the late 60s but my mom said my brother sucked his thumb untill he got the mumps. His hand broke out in those bumps and it got so painfull to suck it that he stopped.

I thought it was an interesting story. Though I don't recomend it.

Answer 8

well you may want to tell him that sucking your thumb can make you have buck teeth and that wouldnt be good. then you could always put hot sauce on it.or you could always tell him when he gos to school that the other kids might make fun of him and call him a baby.

Answer 9

this actually occurs because he feels more secure with sucking his thumb.. its some kind of comforting thing.. kids of this age need security and comfort maybe a like a reward system could help; like when he doesn't suck his thumb you could like praise him "Hey i like when you don't suck your thumb", and so on.. like catch him when he is not sucking his thumb?? i hope this helps. =)

Answer 10

Go for something dramatic like telling him it might fall off if he keeps sucking it. I know it sounds cruel but it worked with my 4 year old.