On thumbsucking

Dr. Phil talked about children sucking their thumbs. One mother was worried that it would make her 4-year old daughter’s teeth crooked. Dr. Phil said that she shouldn’t worry about it because those are still baby teeth. By the time her permanent teeth come out, she probably would have given up thumbsucking.

I was also worried with RC, who sucked his thumb until five years old. During one of his dental check ups, we came across a book in the waiting room. It was about a boy who sucked his thumb. I read the book to RC and showed him the pictures. When we came home that night, I followed what the father did in the story. Before RC went to bed, I put a band-aid on his thumb. The first couple of nights, RC continued sucking his thumb, including the band-aid. So I followed the next step. I covered his hand with a sock and taped it around so that he wouldn’t take it off. RC was very cooperative because he saw the pictures on the book and he knew that it worked for the boy. And it did for RC as well. After two weeks, we got rid of the sock and he never sucked his thumb again.