6-year-old thumb sucker - HELP!

[Tinijocaro]

I sucked till 2nd grade. My dad offered me and my sister money if we stopped. Worked for us!

 

[PrincessKitty1]

I sucked till 2nd grade. My dad offered me and my sister money if we stopped. Worked for us!

Now that you mention it, my Dad offered all of us $5 each ( a large sum of money for a 10 year old 40+ years ago ) or a manicure set if we (siblings) would stop biting our nails. I can't remember if that worked for us!

 

[MsLeFever]

Hi, I'm Barbara and I'm a thumb sucker.

(Hi Barbara!

I don't think I quit until 5th or 6th grade - whenever it was that the braces got put in.

My son pretty much quit in 2nd grade - he didn't suck at school (hmmm - that looks like a comment on his grades) and we used the bandaid trick at home. DH was quitting smoking and I was losing weight....DS was the only one of the 3 of us that made good on his plan.

I did have a college student that sucked his thumb during theatre history class - and I called him on it - I'm mean that way. (which didn't really phase him at all by the way!)

 

[iggbees]

I sucked my thumb at night until I was pretty old. I stopped on my own. Nothing my parents did would deter me from it and my dentist told my parents that. You know what broke me? Embarassment. I wouldn't dare do it at a sleepover or something and the older I got, the more nights I spent with my friends and I just got used to not.

Honestly, my teeth are just fine and no one is scarred.

i could have written this. i stopped sucking my thumb because i was embarrassed to be around my friends and have sleep overs and suck my thumb. i used to be in girl scouts and going on camping trips was horrible because i was a thumb sucker.

i also do not have bucked teeth because of sucking my thumb as much as my dentist told me i was going to when i was growing up. my teeth are perfect and my dentist tells me he can't believe i never had braces because they look so good. so i wouldn't worry about that aspect.

i'm actually glad that my parents never had that stupid appliance put in my mouth to stop me from sucking my thumb. i knew someone who had one growing up and i'm sure that having to explain why you have that in your mouth is more embarrassing than sucking your thumb, especially if it's only at night. i would have hated my parents for making me have one of them.

 

[fortheluvofpooh]

my niece sucked her thumb until she was about 12 yrs old, that is when she got her braces on, her parents had a piece put in to prevent her from being able to suck her thumb. Her thumb was raw. The guard worked but not immediately, she had scrape after scrape on her thumb. She would unconciosly (sp??) in her sleep suck her thumb.

 

[BadgerGirl84]

I was in the same boat as the other posters who said that they sucked their thumbs into their teens (I didn't quit completely until 14!!!) and they only stopped because of embarassement at sleepovers. Nothing my parents did deterred me--bribes, money, band-aids, Tabasco sauce, yucky nail polish. I didn't quit sucking my thumb completely (stopped sucking my thumb in school in the 4th grade, then just sucked my thumb at night to fall asleep) until I just made up my mind to quit. Sort of like a smoker! For me, sucking my thumb was very comforting and that first night was really tough.

Like the others, my teeth were fine. I'm 24 now and the dentist doesn't believe I never had braces!

 

[jlima]

DS8 still sucks his thumb. The dentist says he pushes up on the roof of his mouth so he isn't screwing up his teeth. He never does it at school; and he's doing it a lot less than he was last year. I am hoping he grows out of it.