Helping Your Child Kick The Habit: Thumb Sucking

Thumb sucking in a child is both a blessing and a curse for parents. On the one hand, children who use this behavior to soothe and comfort themselves are more likely to sleep through the night sooner. On the other hand, as a toddler grows up, parents are right to be concerned about the habit's effect on their child's dental development. Here are some ways to help your child kick the habit once and for all.

First of all, it's useless to try to convince a little baby or even a toddler to give up the thumb. She simply doesn't have the ability to be reasoned with in this way, and drastic measures (such as applying a bitter tasting substance) might be too traumatic.

The sucking action is a deeply ingrained source of comfort: whether it comes via a breast, a bottle, a pacifier, or a thumb. Let your child be until she is old enough to want to feel more "grown up." Many pediatricians agree that a parent should start being concerned about helping their child break the habit if she's still doing it at age 5.

-- Make it a positive experience as much as possible. You may wish to use a bitter tasting substance on the thumb or wrap it in bandages to discourage the behavior.

Just make sure you couple it with a positive reward system, like you probably did when you were potty training her. Keep a calendar on the fridge and let her place a star on each day she did not suck her thumb. Emphasize how "grown up" she is becoming and heap on the praise. This will be hard for her, but if you are positive and don't nag, she will want to please you.

-- Help her think of it herself. During normal conversation at lunchtime, you may want to bring up how "grown up" she is getting and associate certain things she has already given up with that process. For instance, she no longer eats little jars of baby food, has no need for bibs or bottles or diapers! This is exciting!

While the wheels are turning in her head, she may come up with thumb sucking as something she needs to give up in order to be more grown up. This is a great time to put a plan into place to help her do that and get her input.

-- Many children only suck their thumbs at bedtime. If you're lucky, they'll associate thumb sucking with clutching another object such as a blankie. One mother bought her son a soft plush toy he'd been asking for. When he wanted to sleep with it at night, she gave him a choice: he could either sleep with the toy or the blankie, or not both. He wanted to sleep with the toy so much that he chose instead of the blankie. With no blankie to associate with thumb sucking, he didn't suck his thumb anymore after that!

The bottom line is that parents will bring about strong resistance in their child by nagging about and mercilessly demeaning her thumb sucking habit. Long term success is best achieved by giving her choices about how to give up the behavior, associating giving it up with "growing up," and keeping the process as positive as possible. Empathize with her by telling of your own childhood experiences with having to give up beloved habits. Good luck!

You're not alone out there! For frank and fun talk about bringing up children, watch the mom podcast at (www.mommycast.com/). Art Gib is a freelance writer.

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