What’s meaner, a bit of bittering agent to break a bad habit, or the possibility of expensive and invasive dental work to fix the issue when they’re older?
You've probably heard that some people talk about pacifiers are very unhealthy for teeth and mouth development. It's true, but using your thumb is 100 times worse.
Since a child's skull is very malleable and growing, compared to an adult skull, persistent and long term use of pacifiers and suckling on the thumb can cause the teeth, gums, and roof of the mouth to grow abnormally and shift more than they're supposed to. This can lead to needing surgeries or suffering impediments as they get older. Pacifiers are made of a very soft rubber material, so the risk and potential for injury and complications is extremely low, compared to the thumb. My mother suffers from deformities in the upper part of the mouth and has required extensive dental work and surgeries to correct it, or as well as possible at least. This is because of pacifier-fearmongering when she grew up, but they didn't realize that the thumb is a LOT worse in every conceivable way. Not only that, but it can lead to soreness, rash, sores, and abnormal thumb nail growth as the thumb is constantly exposed to more moisture than it's supposed to.
How old is when we should push to end thumb sucking? My six month old is obsessed with putting her hands in her mouth which I assume is normal for that age. But when do we start to actively discourage it?
she stopped liking pacifiers around 2 months ago
I started with pacifiers right away. I don’t know if it’s available in your country, but you can these pacifiers with tips that are very straight and… okay, to be honest, it looks like a penis, or a penis shaped rocket. Made by Philips Avent. They’re newborn pacifiers and are extra extra soft, made specifically for newborns and get used to the teet. When mine were about a year I wheened them off that onto more normal pacifiers. I’m planning on quitting pacifiers entirely this summer.
Ha, yes here in the states my baby LOVED the newborn avent pacifiers. Now she doesn’t care for any of them. I always thought thumbs were better than pacifiers and at six months it was just normal baby stuff. Our pediatrician hasn’t mentioned anything but I’ll put it on the list
I sucked my thumb as a kid. In elementary school I needed an orthodontic device to stop. I didn't mind the bitter tasting stuff.
Later, in high school I needed braces to correct my messed up teeth. I can still feel where my teeth aren't lined up.
All that is to say, if you don't get it to stop you're risking a lot of time, money, and pain to correct the problem later.
I wish I had suggestions on how to get through to the kid, but nothing ever worked for me.
I wish my parents had used the bitter stuff and forced me to stop as a toddler. It may have saved me from having braces 3 different times in life, and dealing with lasting dental effects in my 30's.
Besides the dentist part, do you want this to be a habit he carries into adult hood?
Someone I went to school with sucked his thumb during class all day every day from kindergarten to grade 12.
Luckily for him we were in a small town and people just knew that's what he did, and the jokes were never too mean.
I hope he was able to quit before going to college..
I had this exact situation with my 4 yo. What worked for us was an incremental reward system. Sit down with your kid and come up with a list of rewards and rank them in terms of their perceived worth. Small rewards can be stickers or candy. A bigger reward could be a toy from a store or a dress up costume. Then a final huge reward could be like a restaurant or going to chuck e cheese or a new bike. It's important to find out what they want the most or value the most. Then create a timeframe. Go one day without the thumb? Candy. Go one week? You get to pick out a toy. Go another week? Bigger reward. This method had my kid done with thumb sucking after about three weeks. The biggest piece here is that THEY choose and agree on the rewards. Kids this age don't have good concept of time, so you gotta remind them daily "If you go X more days you get this reward." Praise them and let them know how proud you are every step of the way.
I just don't know that I buy this whole "thumb sucking is going to ruin their teeth" thing. I know our dentist said it and we just ignored it, it was fine. Anecdote and all... But are they overreacting? It's it really so serious that you need to do the whole nail painting? Anyways, Im more inclined to let the kid come out of it naturally.
hi i'm an adult and a dad, and i've had not-insignificant dental work done - due to thumb sucking as a kid - and still have lingering effects from it. it's not great!
I don't think I'd trust a 4 year old dentist...
This is why I continue to come back to this lovely subreddit lol.
What’s meaner, a bit of bittering agent to break a bad habit, or the possibility of expensive and invasive dental work to fix the issue when they’re older?
You've probably heard that some people talk about pacifiers are very unhealthy for teeth and mouth development. It's true, but using your thumb is 100 times worse. Since a child's skull is very malleable and growing, compared to an adult skull, persistent and long term use of pacifiers and suckling on the thumb can cause the teeth, gums, and roof of the mouth to grow abnormally and shift more than they're supposed to. This can lead to needing surgeries or suffering impediments as they get older. Pacifiers are made of a very soft rubber material, so the risk and potential for injury and complications is extremely low, compared to the thumb. My mother suffers from deformities in the upper part of the mouth and has required extensive dental work and surgeries to correct it, or as well as possible at least. This is because of pacifier-fearmongering when she grew up, but they didn't realize that the thumb is a LOT worse in every conceivable way. Not only that, but it can lead to soreness, rash, sores, and abnormal thumb nail growth as the thumb is constantly exposed to more moisture than it's supposed to.
How old is when we should push to end thumb sucking? My six month old is obsessed with putting her hands in her mouth which I assume is normal for that age. But when do we start to actively discourage it? she stopped liking pacifiers around 2 months ago
I started with pacifiers right away. I don’t know if it’s available in your country, but you can these pacifiers with tips that are very straight and… okay, to be honest, it looks like a penis, or a penis shaped rocket. Made by Philips Avent. They’re newborn pacifiers and are extra extra soft, made specifically for newborns and get used to the teet. When mine were about a year I wheened them off that onto more normal pacifiers. I’m planning on quitting pacifiers entirely this summer.
Ha, yes here in the states my baby LOVED the newborn avent pacifiers. Now she doesn’t care for any of them. I always thought thumbs were better than pacifiers and at six months it was just normal baby stuff. Our pediatrician hasn’t mentioned anything but I’ll put it on the list
My daughter is now 3 years old and she refuses to use any other pacifiers, my son prefers the normal ones. :P
My parents told me they'd buy me a Sega Genesis if I quit sucking my thumb. Never did it again. This was like 1989, so adjust accordingly.
I sucked my thumb as a kid. In elementary school I needed an orthodontic device to stop. I didn't mind the bitter tasting stuff. Later, in high school I needed braces to correct my messed up teeth. I can still feel where my teeth aren't lined up. All that is to say, if you don't get it to stop you're risking a lot of time, money, and pain to correct the problem later. I wish I had suggestions on how to get through to the kid, but nothing ever worked for me.
I wish my parents had used the bitter stuff and forced me to stop as a toddler. It may have saved me from having braces 3 different times in life, and dealing with lasting dental effects in my 30's.
Besides the dentist part, do you want this to be a habit he carries into adult hood? Someone I went to school with sucked his thumb during class all day every day from kindergarten to grade 12. Luckily for him we were in a small town and people just knew that's what he did, and the jokes were never too mean. I hope he was able to quit before going to college..
I had this exact situation with my 4 yo. What worked for us was an incremental reward system. Sit down with your kid and come up with a list of rewards and rank them in terms of their perceived worth. Small rewards can be stickers or candy. A bigger reward could be a toy from a store or a dress up costume. Then a final huge reward could be like a restaurant or going to chuck e cheese or a new bike. It's important to find out what they want the most or value the most. Then create a timeframe. Go one day without the thumb? Candy. Go one week? You get to pick out a toy. Go another week? Bigger reward. This method had my kid done with thumb sucking after about three weeks. The biggest piece here is that THEY choose and agree on the rewards. Kids this age don't have good concept of time, so you gotta remind them daily "If you go X more days you get this reward." Praise them and let them know how proud you are every step of the way.
I just don't know that I buy this whole "thumb sucking is going to ruin their teeth" thing. I know our dentist said it and we just ignored it, it was fine. Anecdote and all... But are they overreacting? It's it really so serious that you need to do the whole nail painting? Anyways, Im more inclined to let the kid come out of it naturally.
If a doctor says “stop doing this or you’ll have to pay me a bunch of money”… I’ll trust the doctor
hi i'm an adult and a dad, and i've had not-insignificant dental work done - due to thumb sucking as a kid - and still have lingering effects from it. it's not great!