Thumb sucking
(and finger sucking) is one of the most common habits during childhood. Some children suck their
thumb for safety even before birth.
While babies use sucking in order to get nutrition, they experience certain pleasurable sensations,
associated with the fulfillment from food and tenderness.
CAUSES OF THUMB SUCKING
For much younger children thumbsucking can be just a way to relieve the feeling of hunger.
About 70% to 90% of infants are sucking their thumb, but most of them gradually stop on their own between ages 3 and 6.
Trying to explain the causes of thumb sucking in children, psychologists suggest that some children look for a way to continue the once necessary
and pleasantly soothing experience of nutritional sucking, thus forming the thumb or other finger sucking habits.
Sucking their thumb becomes for some children a substitute for comfort, pleasure, and safety.
In other cases it is nothing more than a habit, sometimes established even before birth, with no underlying causes.
But if you notice that the habit becomes more intense when ever the child feels that his security is threatened, then the causes of thumb sucking are clearly emotional.
WHEN THUMBSUCKING
BECOMES A PROBLEM ?
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HOW TO STOP THUMB SUCKING
Easy ways to get kids to stop sucking their thumb
Parents usually start to worry too early, about how to stop thumb sucking habit of their children.
It is advised that you do not try to make a child to stop thumb sucking before the age of four (unless you notice a problem to teeth due to vigorous thumbsucking)
because it might have the opposite results.
Usually children stop the habit on their own, by that age.
If they don't, here are some easy ways to get kids to stop thumbsucking :
Keep the child's hands occupied with a toy, puzzle or other activity.
Carefully remove your child's thumb from his or her mouth during sleep
Give the example of his friends that have managed to stop thumbsucking.
Don't put the child in a state of anxiety or fear.
If the child has any emotional problems, or is under stress and needs comforting,
you may need to resolve those issues first before your child can succesfully stop thumb-sucking.
Talk about the 'bad' germs that are on our hands and how the child puts them in his or her mouth while thumb sucking.
Avoid punishing or shaming the child.
Reward the child for not thumbsucking for a progressively increasing time period.
Ask the advice of a pediatric dentist. He will explain to your kid what will happen to the teeth if the child does not stop sucking its thumb.
Use a thumb sucking guard. - In difficult cases, your dentist might suggest the use of special devices to stop thumb sucking, called thumb guards.
A thumb guard is a device with a plastic cover of the thumb that is attached to a child's wrist.
The thumb sucking guard interrupts the process by breaking the vacuum created by sucking, thus removing the child's pleasure.
Treatment with thumb guards usually lasts four weeks and helps children to stop thumb sucking succesfully.
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If the child doesn't stop thumb sucking in time, it is possible some teeth to get misplaced, crowded or crooked.
Although thumb sucking is a normal habit it causes serious teeth problems if
it continues long after the eruption of permanent teeth. The problem gets more serious if it continues after the age of four or five.
