Pacifiers

[chev1958]

OK, folks, I need some recommendations. Our 14-month-old grandson sucks his thumb. His "brilliant" father refused to allow pacifiers for the baby because he thought a pacifier would cause the baby's teeth to "buck out." Now, they can't get the baby to stop sucking his thumb, and he refuses a pacifier now. What are the tricks to getting the kid to stop sucking his thumb?

[Anon]

LOL!

Ummmm...

Only had one finger sucker and it was hard. I finally shamed him out of it at age 4 (made fun of him for being a baby. Sorry guys.)

I did try that stuff you can paint on nails to break the nail biting habit, but it made him throw up and I felt bad and I never did it again.

Bribery? Really there isn't much of a way...just talk about it all the time, don't let him do it when he's around you....break the habit during the day, and then pray hard about the nighttime habit. LOL.

[John81]

From my own observations of others (none of ours ever did this), it seems to be a long process of continually working (reminding the child, mild scolding, pulling the thumb out and saying "no" every time you see it, even using shame (like Suzy) if the child is old enough to understand, etc.).

It seems to take time, consistent effort and sometimes it takes a very long time for the child to finally stop.

Now that's just from my observations of others, not first hand experience.

[Colin Stolzer]

Tabasco worked with our oldest, re-applied as needed. Of course I think it might have long term effects, because now as a teenager he sits down with a jar full of raw Jalapenos and eats them.....might be a connection between the two, I don't know for sure.

C

[Annie]

Out of my five kids, three of them took a pacifier (had no interest in thumb). The other two did not want the paci. My youngest is the only one who sucked his thumb, and he was the happiest of the bunch (able to self-calm, etc.). The shape of his palate and front teeth was affected for as long as he sucked his thumb. We broke him of it before he turned two, if I remember correctly. He did not suck it all the time--just at naptime and bedtime. I pinned a thick sock on his left sleeve and told him that it was time to stop sucking his thumb. It didn't take that long until he was broken of the habit. He also had a blanket that he would hold at bedtime while he sucked his thumb. If the sock hadn't worked, we would have taken the blanket away.

[trc123]

I thought this was going to be a thread about peaceniks or Liberal Democrats; I'm glad I was wrong..... :Green

[Bakershalfdozen]

What's wrong with just letting him suck his thumb? :hide Apparently I'm the only one in this thread who thinks this way :wvlf" but at that age, I wouldn't fret about breaking him of it yet. Sucking is a calming, soothing effect for a baby.

3 of mine were paci kids and the other was a thumb-o. One of them still wanted a paci after turning 1 but I threw them away. He resorted to his thumb but only for a little while. He only needed it for sleeping anyway.

[matie-k]

Well, I'm an oddball that prefers the thumb to a pacifier. This is just because we didn't have much of a problem breaking our first daughter from the habit, and a thumb is much more convenient than having to find/clean/stick-back-in-numberous-times pacifier. Anyways, we had an easy time of it with our first daughter. At first she would do it all the time whether at home or in public. We just constantly nagged her about it other than at nap/bedtime to break her of doing it all the time. And then around the time she turned 2, I sewed socks onto the sleeves of all her jammies so that she had no access to her thumb. We left them on for about a month, and when we took them off the habit was broken! I really don't like pacifiers for my girls although it seems to be the main way our baby is pacified. Just last night I was frustrated with having to once again pop that thing back in her mouth and made a mental note to quit with the pacifiers.

[Annie]

What's wrong with just letting him suck his thumb? :hide Apparently I'm the only one in this thread who thinks this way :wvlf" but at that age' date=' I wouldn't fret about breaking him of it yet. Sucking is a calming, soothing effect for a baby. [/quote']I agree with you, BHD. The only thing I didn't like about the thumb-sucking was that it changed the shape of my son's palate and teeth. His teeth did stick out a lot more than my other kids' did. I'm glad we broke him of the habit when we did...not that there's anything wrong with kids over two y.o. sucking their thumbs. We just wanted to stop him at that point--mainly because of how his teeth were looking.

[bzmomo7]

I just finally got my new baby to quit sucking her thumb and prefer the pacifier. We didn't want a long term problem, either. Here is a ridiculously expensive solution http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/pro ... rce=Search Maybe you could use the idea and come up with something cheaper on your own that works?

[deafnva77]

OK' date=' folks, I need some recommendations. Our 14-month-old grandson sucks his thumb. His "brilliant" father refused to allow pacifiers for the baby because he thought a pacifier would cause the baby's teeth to "buck out." Now, they can't get the baby to stop sucking his thumb, and he refuses a pacifier now. What are the tricks to getting the kid to stop sucking his thumb?[/quote']


my son had always refused a pacifier. he wasn't a thumb sucker either but he sure did prefer human pacifier LOL but that didn't last at all -- like til he was 1, almost near 2 years old when I decided to stop breastfeeding him .. he didn't have any sucking habits after that. and I always sucked my two fingers, and my mother tried pacifier (I was a bottle baby, btw). So sadly, even if the father allowed him, your grandson would have gave up the pacifier for his thumb. It's what they prefer.

My family did teased me alot and sing songs about my sucking... like "Angie suck her fingers.." etc. But It was too late for me anyway, my teeth still stick out alittle. Not too noticable though.

If I was you, I would have the father to invest his money for braces :D

[bzmomo7]

Yeah, if he checks the price of braces, he'll have his toddlers hands permanently mittened until he breaks his habit. Our oldest daughter's braces are nearing the end finally..........$4,000+ later. Some places had estimated as high as $6,000. That is ridiculous, but it was necessary as her teeth were so crowded she was in pain.

[chev1958]

Thanks, everyone, for the ideas. It's interesting that sucking thumbs is what causes teeth to misalign - which proves my son-in-law wrong again. While our kids were growing up, we gave them pacifiers and when it was time to stop using them, we made a big deal about getting rid of them, and we never had problems with thumb-suckers. The problem is that his thumb is always around, we're constantly saying "no thumbs," and he's developed a callous (sp?) at the base of his thumb. But now that I think about it, he only sucks his thumb when he's tired and ready for a nap/sleep. The mittens idea sounds pretty good - might be trying that soon.

Thanks again!

[HappyChristian]

Mitch - I gotta say that I disagree that sucking the thumb always reshapes the mouth. Why do I say that? Well...my sister sucked her thumb for many years (even today, in her 40's, if she is really stressed, she can end up with it in her mouth in her sleep). And her teeth were straight, her palate fine. I never sucked my thumb. But my teeth are, not buck, but I do have an overbite. Didn't have it with my baby teeth, but the permanent teeth came in like that.

I agree that at this child's age maybe it should just be given a pass. Most children stop on their own...if they don't, then is the time to be concerned.

I have seen 3 and 4 year olds with pacifiers. That is kinda disturbing...

I don't think there's anything wrong with either for babies and very young children, though.

[matie-k]

Right - As I said before, our daughter sucked her thumb til she was 2 and had no ill effects from it. We've been using a pacifier with our 1 month old, but it has caused more frustration than it's worth imo, and I wish she'd find her thumb. If a baby must suck on something, I'd rather it be something that she controls rather than something that I have to continually be picking up and putting back in her mouth in order to keep her happy.