I have decided that Little Guy is never going to stop sucking that thumb! When do you make your little one stop sucking his thumb? Maybe the question should be, How? I have tried, without a ton of effort I suppose! We tried the, "You can get a new toy" route...that didn't work...then we tried the "Let me see that thumb so I can paint this nasty stuff all over it" route. I think that worked for few weeks. Then Little Guy would just suck off the nastiness so he could have his thumb back. Now, I think we are going to just let him do it...and pay to have his mouth fixed! Is that horrible? Should I be a tougher parent? Any advice?
11 comments:
Oh, Little Guy.....tell your mom and dad it's going to be okay and they tried. You tell them you will give it up when you are ready. I think you tried your best and now it is up to him. Have you talked to his pediatrician?
No,butthe dentist says he has to stop...it is running his mouth!
Oh...that is so hard! I am the worst when it comes to stuff like that...my two year old still has his pacifier and I have no idea how we'll ever break him of it! He only uses it when he goes to bed now but still...I know he should stop!
And, I have to tell you, the secret to my youthful appearance...I am step-mom to sons #1-4! My husband's ex-wife started having an affair in their 19th year of marraige. They hid it from sons 1-4 until after son #1 left on his mission because my husband was convinced they would be able to work things out. She moved out shortly after son #1 went on his mission. This has been very hard for all of the boys but especially son #1 because by the time he got home from his mission, his parents were divorced, his dad was married to me and one week later his mother married the man with whom she had the affair. To make matters worse in the eyes of son #1, his dad and I only knew each other for a little over three weeks before we got married...crazy I know but totally working for us! However, this has all been especially hard on son #1.
The gal that son #1 is marrying is very, very nice and we are very excited for him!
As the mom of a major "thumb sucker" I too am looking for some good advice. Let me know if you get some. I've always kinda gone on the "she'll stop when she is ready" mode. But now that she is 6 I'm really getting tired of the thumb. She stopped sucking it at school last year, but is sucking almost non-stop this summer. In our first attempts to get her to stop she was all for it, but now that she has figured out that it means she has to stop she is less than willing to even try. Her new teeth coming in are a mess and I know our ortho bills are going to be through the roof with her. At the same time, she is just a little kid and sometimes you need a little comfort when you are a kid (especially when you are the middle kid). Not sure what we will do, but I think this is the year to do it. So there, I've got no advice and I'm basically no help at all...just another mom going through the same thing :-)
I have no advice, except I remember sucking my fingers and I remember mom and dad putting that crap on my fingers too...and I did the same thing Levi did...sucked the nasty crap off and kept on sucking.
I can tell you that I don't suck my fingers now. ; ) AND I have PERFECT teeth. PLUS no cavities. Levi is like his auntie.
So what did the dentist recommend? They must have had some ideas for you. I do know of a friend who had an issue with the pacifiers and they cut all the tips off the pacifiers (the part that they suck on). So they realized "Hey, there's nothing to suck on". They soon realized it was a habit worth giving up. I know you surely aren't going to cut his thumb off, it is just a suggestion for "binky" addicts.
My sister sucked her thumb till she was about 9. My mum told her it would result in orthodontist trips, but she did it anyway. She finally stopped. (I think my dad paid her one dollar for every consecutive day she wasn't caught sucking it) She had a retainer from the age of 10 for a year or so to fix the big gap she had given herself between her front two teeth. Then that was it. The other three of us girls have all had braces. She has the best teeth out of all of us. So, who knows!
HOllie the dentist recommend that we put this metal thing in his mouth to help pull his two front teeth back in. I said no way! He is only 4...and I am in no way ready to do that to him. I agree, he is probably just going to keep doing it...and we will pay a big ortho bill!
Oh, we are inthe process of looking for a new dentist!
Oh, I am already wondering what we're going to do about this when the time comes, and my daughter is only one! My little sister sucked her thumb until the day she turned 4. My parents had tried a lot of things too, and kept asking Rachel "when are you going to stop sucking your thumb?" She insisted "when I'm 4!". Nobody expected this but she stopped sucking her thumb really and truly on the day she turned 4! I guess she just decided she would make the call on her own.
That said, maybe you could sit down with your son and a calendar and ask him if he'd like to set a date for quitting. Turn it into a bar mitzvah of sorts!
I told my son when he started school that there was a rule that Kindergarteners cannot suck their thumbs... He say "No it isnt" and ooked at me like I had lost my mind. He only did it at night as we had started telling him "thumb!" during the day and he would take it out. At school during nap he noticed no one else did that so he quit some time that year... Now I have an 8 year old that does it at bed only....
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