Ways To Help Your Child Break The Thumb Sucking Habit

If you have an older child who sucks their thumb, there are ways you can break this bad habit. Talking to your child is the number one way to help them understand how thumb sucking can be detrimental to them.

The follow are a few ways to approach the subject with your child:

Educate Them – Talking to your child about the side effects of sucking their thumb can help them understand why it is important they discontinue the behavior. Discuss how beautiful their smile will be if they stop the habit. Explain the way our teeth form by showing them examples either online, in books or by placing them in front of a mirror to look at their own mouths.

Let them also know how unhealthy thumb sucking is by explaining how germs can get into their mouths. Once they know this information, they may be more likely to not want to suck their thumbs.

Keep Them Busy – Always try and keep your child’s hands busy by playing with them and by doing fun activities. The more the child has to do using their hands, the less likely they will stick their hands in their mouths.

Nighttime Help – If you notice your child sucking their thumb while sleeping, gently remove their thumb from their mouths. Children use thumb sucking as a soothing method to calm themselves, offer them a stuffed animal, or play soothing music to help calm them.

Praise Them Often – While tying to break the habit of thumb sucking, there are bound to be set backs. However, when you see that your child is making an effort to truly stop the habit, praise them often and tell them what a great job they are doing. Positive reinforcement will help a child understand how much stopping this action means to you as a parent and they will want to please you. You can also offer them a small reward for their progress to encourage them to keep up the good work.

Be Patient – The habit will not go away over night. It is important as the parent to be patient when trying to dissuade a child from thumb sucking; it may take some time to get beyond it.

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