Thumb sucking; breaking the habit

By: The Osteopathic Centre for Children

Thumb sucking often emerges in infancy, but the habit may start even earlier. Many babies have been sucking already for multiple months before they even leave the womb. By the time they’ve grown to age 3 or 4, some children’s thumbs will travel a well-worn path to their mouth, a pathway so familiar that most thumb suckers aren’t even aware of it.

Babies are born with an instinct to suck, that’s how they feed. However, in infancy, sucking is also used for comfort if perhaps baby’s feeling hungry, tired, afraid or bored. And it’s not just the sucking of a thumb, dummy or fingers that brings comfort. Next time your baby feeds, just check every now and then to see if she’s still swallowing – if she’s not but she’s still sucking, then this is just for comfort.

Thumb or dummy sucking is very common and normal, with certainly no cause for alarm in the very early years. However, prolonged thumb sucking, i.e., beyond 3 – 4 years old, may cause dental problems. The action itself places a strain on the teeth and may pull the dental arch forward or out of shape, and it is this damaged pathway the adult teeth will follow.

It’s not always easy weaning your child off their dummy or thumb, but the benefits of doing this early are undoubtedly worthwhile for your child.

If you need help with strategies for weaning off thumb or dummy sucking (we’ll call it ‘the action’ moving forward), here a few tips you may find helpful:

• If they are of an age to understand, talk to your child about the action. Help your child understand that when she is ready to stop, you will be there to help.
• Don’t turn her action into a confrontation. Don’t tell your child not to suck her thumb, recognise her achievements and praise her when she’s not sucking her thumb
• Try to limit the time that your child sucks her thumb to her bedroom or the house, not in public
• Don’t prohibit the action, if she tries to suck her thumb or fingers after being hurt, injured or upset, she may need to be in her comfort zone and stopping the action may add to her trauma
• When your child is sucking her thumb, ask in a kind, and non-confrontational way, ‘Are you aware you are sucking your thumb?’ If she says no, help her find another way to soothe
• Don’t use nasty-tasting stuff marketed to stop thumb and finger sucking.
• Come up with creative ways to help your child understand they are growing up and one day they won’t suck their thumb anymore.
• Do not get her to wear a glove or a mitten as a quick fix, it’ll just frustrate her and cause more anxiety. Plus, it’s likely she’ll just take it off, which will frustrate you!
• Finally, and most importantly, be patient, kind and considerate