Question for the parent of thumb suckers

[ceiligh1]

I sucked my thumb until I was in the 4th grade. I finally stopped when I accidently started sucking during a evening movie at school. I was so scared that someone in my class saw me but no one did. I didnt want it to happen again so I stopped. However I do know someone who still sucks their finger (instead of thumb) and that person is in their 20's, its a coping thing. DOing it when they want comfort and dont know how to deal with what they are feeling.

I had a calus as well on my thumb and a little overbite because of it. If your DD doesnt stop on her own I would talk to her doctor about how to help her stop and to deal with the comfort issues. But thats just my two cents.

 

[RealMickeysGirl]

I had a roomate in college that still sucked her thumb when she went to sleep at night.

We are talking about someone 19/20 years old here. She got very defensive if anyone commented on it. She actually told me not to invite one of my friends to our room. Of course, this friend was a jokester and prankster and couldn't leave anything that she knew bothered you alone. I thought she was way past the age to stop so I didn't really care if my friend gave her a hard time about it.

 

[puffkin]

I sucked my thumb until age 8 when I got braces. It definitely attributed to my overbite.

I only did it at night, so I put socks on my hands to sleep. After about a week of doing that I was fine. It was more habit than anything else.

Because of my experience (I always thought it was embarassing), the few times my son has put his thumb/fingers in his mouth to suck we have pulled it out and given the pacifier. Right now he doesn't really need either to sleep. Our rationale is that you can throw away a pacifier eventually, but not a thumb.

 

[Allie322]

My oldest daughter sucked her thumb from the day she was born until she started kindergarten. Combined with ear issues, it contributed to her speech problems. Basically, from sucking her thumb, her tongue was always positioned at the bottom of her mouth, not at the top. When she was learning speech patterns, she couldn't hear the sounds correctly nor could she form certain sounds because her tongue wasn't used to moving in necessary ways. (Mostly "s" sounds, and "th" and other blends.) After many years of speech therapy and countless trips to the ENT doctors, her speech is pretty good, though not perfect.