How Your Little One Stop Sucking Their Thumb?

Thumb sucking is cute and can be a great self-soother for children, but as they get older it can interfere with their speech development, cause orthodontic issues, lead to bullying and increase the risk and spread of illness. Breaking the habit can be hard, but here are six products that might just do the trick.

You can also buy thumb sucking gloves from the amazon Canada website in order to stop thumb sucking.

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1. Thumb Guard

This plastic shield worn over the child’s thumb and held in place with a bracelet is designed to stop the suck motion from happening when they pop their thumb in their mouth and therefore takes away the pleasure from the activity. Made from BPA and phthalate-free plastic, it claims to stop thumb sucking in less than four weeks with most parents seeing results after just one. It comes in three sizes with 30 different colored bracelets so kids can mix it up daily, plus includes a reward chart and stickers.

2. Mavala Stop

Designed for children aged three and up, this clear enamel is put over the thumb or nails to prevent sucking or biting thanks to its bitter, yet harmless taste. Needs to be reapplied every two days, with the original layer removed prior to nail polish remover. The reason it’s not recommended for kids under three is that their taste buds aren’t developed properly yet and they might get used to the taste.

How To Stop Your Toddler From Thumb Sucking?

Thumb sucking, despite everything you hear, is a perfectly normal, natural and healthy activity for your newborn and infant to partake in. Normally children outgrow this habit by the age of three if they started doing it at all, with no physical or psychological side effects whatsoever.

However, some children do not break themselves of this habit and if it continues to the ages of 4, 5 and ever 6, your child may be at risk for, or already developing some of the problems associated with thumb sucking. Some problems can be misaligned teeth, a lisp and improper development of the mouth and jaw. You can also know how to stop finger sucking by using finger sucking guards.

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Good question and here is the first tip. Don’t yell, nag or get upset with the child if they are still sucking their thumbs. This will only reinforce their thumb-sucking habit and make it even harder to get them to stop.

There are a few ways to go about getting your toddler to stop sucking their thumb:

1) Praise – When the child does not suck their thumb for specific periods of time, be sure to praise the child. This offers positive reinforcement of something well done.

2) My Special Shirt – This is a specifically designed shirt and behavioral pattern program to help the child and parent successfully overcome thumb sucking. This program also comes with a professionally made agenda as well as support systems from the developers.

3) Pay More Attention to the Child – Thumb sucking often continues due to a sense of insecurity and the need for comfort.

4) Taste – There are products you can place on your child’s thumb that taste pretty nasty. These are, of course, completely safe and doctor approved. This reinforces with an immediate stimulus of thumb sucking is bad with the bad taste of the thumb.