cim1@pyuxv.UUCP (G. Bogatko) (07/19/85)
I am looking for information on how to stop a 6 year old from sucking her thumb. She only sucks it in the daytime, but during that daytime it is constant. She would rather suck her thumb than anything else. This is really starting to piss me off. She has plenty of friends, does well in school, has lots of outside things to do, but......in the end she would rather suck her thumb. help.
alb@alice.UUCP (Adam L. Buchsbaum) (07/19/85)
Try putting a band aid around her thumb. They don't taste too good.
ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig) (07/19/85)
How about asking her to suck her thumb when other people are around, telling her and them how cute it looks and generally being as cloyingly sweet about it as you can stand? Betcha she gets bored in time.
sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (07/21/85)
> How about asking her to suck her thumb when other people > are around, telling her and them how cute it looks > and generally being as cloyingly sweet about it as you > can stand? Betcha she gets bored in time. I don't think that all thumbsuckers do this out of desire to get attention. For some, thumbsucking is an addiction, not unlike smoking. Some thumbsuckers need to suck their thumb to calm down, go to sleep, before or after certain activities, whatever. It tastes good for a while (like smoking) but after a while doesn't anymore, but one continues anyway because one can't stop. Just like for smoking, there is not one solution that will work for everybody, so one has to experiment with different methods. Some people do better if they are weaned out slowly, some people need drastic measures. Well, if you haven't guessed by now, the reason I know so much about the subject is that I am an ex-thumb-sucker myself. Stopping wasn't easy, and I have occasionally woken up with a wet thumb since. This is really an unfair addiction too. One usually is born with it, so it is not acquired when one is old enough to know better. -- Sophie Quigley {allegra|decvax|ihnp4|linus|watmath}!utzoo!mnetor!sophie
todd@SCIRTP.UUCP (Todd Jones) (07/24/85)
> > I am looking for information on how to stop a 6 year old from > sucking her thumb. I'm no kiddy shrink, and my own child does not suck his thumb (except when pretending to be a baby) but I have noticed that there are different types of thumb suckers- those who suck when nervous or anxious and those who do it absentmindedly regardless of situation. It sounds as though your child is the latter type. I would guess that this must be handled carefully or your child will turn into the other kind of thumbsucker. How does she deal with peer taunting? Excessive teasing could cause her to retreat further into thumbsucking as a comforting escape or it could provide her the impetus to stop. My advice is to just grin and bear it. Peer pressure will eventually, though harshly, cause her to become more aware of it and curb it. ||||||| || || [ O-O ] Todd Jones \ ^ / {decvax,akgua}!mcnc!rti-sel!scirtp!todd | ~ | |___| SCI Systems Inc. doesn't necessarily agree with Todd.
sct@lanl.ARPA (07/29/85)
> > I am looking for information on how to stop a 6 year old from > sucking her thumb. She only sucks it in the daytime, but during that daytime > it is constant. She would rather suck her thumb than anything else. > This is really starting to piss me off. > She has plenty of friends, does well in school, has lots of outside > things to do, but......in the end she would rather suck her thumb. > > > help. Our 6 yr old was still sucking her fingers when we got a device put in her mouth to discourage the sucking. It fits on the roof of her mouth and is held in place by attaching it with a special glue to her back molars. The dentist suggested this to keep her over bite from getting worse and said she should keep it in her mouth for about 3 months. The first few days she had it in she complained a bit but has now accepted it and is not sucking her fingers anymore. We figure this is better than wearing braces and having an overbite in later years. Ask your dentist about it. Steve Tenbrink sct@lanl.arpa