A Wrinkled Thumb

What happens when your kindergartner can’t get his thumb out of his mouth? Here are some ways to handle a thumb-sucker.

By Sarah Hamaker

Q: Our son is going into kindergarten in the fall, and he still sucks his thumb. He’ll take it out when we tell him to, but it’s back in a moment later. We don’t want him to go to school still sucking his thumb and our dentist is already making comments about how bad thumb-sucking is for permanent teeth. Our son says he wants to stop, but can’t seem to break the habit.

A: I feel your pain, as two of my children were avid thumb-suckers. One daughter, when we took away her pacifier at age 2, blithely informed that it was okay because “I have my thumb” and promptly popped the appendage into her mouth. This from a child who hadn’t sucked her thumb at all before that moment.

Fast forward to her kindergarten year and we realized we needed some serious help—and fast—to assist her and our older daughter, who also was a thumb-sucker, in breaking the habit. Because it is a habit, albeit not too terrible a one. Thumb sucking is wonderful when your child is an infant because it’s such a great self-soother and it’s always within reach. But while some kids give it up in a flash, others struggle with it and sometimes need some outside help in breaking the habit.

As you’ve seen, talking to a child this age isn’t going to help him keep the thumb out of his mouth. I recommend buying either a thumb guard that goes over the thumb and is very unpleasant to suck on or trying Mavala Stop, which you paint on the nail and it tastes bitter. Mavala worked for my two girls who needed some additional assistance to stop sucking their thumbs. (Please note that a tiny bit of Mavala goes a long way, and can make some children throw up, so dab just a tad on the end of the nail at first to lessen the possibility of the child being sick.)

You can also try the substitution method, such as giving the child something else to suck on, like a manual toothbrush, and then taking away that item after the child has ceased to suck his thumb. But that can take a long time and you might want to try the other methods first.

Do you have a parenting question you would like to see answered on this blog? Email Sarah with Parenting Question in the subject line. Sign up for Practical Parenting, Sarah’s a free, monthly e-newsletter with commonsense advice on child rearing, by visiting www.parentcoachnova.com and clicking on the newsletter tab.

Sarah Hamaker is a certified Leadership Parenting Coach™ through the Rosemond Leadership Parenting Coach Institute. She’s also a freelance writer and editor. Sarah lives in Fairfax, Va., with her husband and four children. Visit her online at www.parentcoachnova.com and follow her on Twitter @novaparentcoach.