Since three years old this has been a battle for one of my girls. She will quit but she's like an addict and will slip back into her old habits after a few weeks (once almost a year later). I laid in bed last night wondering if I need to find a good ortho and give what is left of our paycheck to the dentist.

HELP




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What have you tried so far to help her quit?

I have a seven-year-old addict.

Nancy

mom to beautiful BBG triplets, born February 2002 at 33 wks, 4 days

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The first round was a sticker chart and after a few weeks then we went to build a bear. That worked for almost a year with her quitting. Then about a year later she'd sneak it in here and there.

The next round was Thumb Busters I ordered online. They work great...IF ONLY she didn't "lose" them for days at a time. It became a struggle to get her to commit to wearing them and not hiding them. I would find them in the oddest locations in her attempts to not to have to wear them. They are soft material and stopped the thumb sucking when she wore them at night.

Last spring I showed her pictures of adults and older children who didn't stop sucking their thumbs and what their teeth looked like. http://www.thumbsuckingadults.com/mytspicturesofteethpage.htm I hoped that she would see this and want want to stop. That worked for a little bit and them she asked if I would still love her if her teeth looked that way. Made me sad and I told her of course but that I would not pay for her teeth to get fixed until she was ready to quit. Then sucking her thumb became more sporadic at nighttime.

NOW in the last month or two my child has started to suck her thumb in the car here and there, at night in bed on a regular basis and when she's in trouble sometimes she'll plug it in while looking right at me. :S So like any good mother I showed her the above website again in hopes that would remind her that if she continues that is her future and that I would have to get an appliance for her mouth. She hates that idea of anything in her mouth. I am desperate.

My child has sensory issues as it is and putting in a device in her mouth will truly be traumatic...I don't want to do that to her. I just don't know what else to do. Her teeth started to straighten out on their own after she quit but now that we're back to nightly thumb sucking they are moving quite a bit and it's her adult teeth. Two days ago we printed out a chart and started using stickers for no thumb sucking nights. After 30 days we'll go out on a date together. I wonder if there is anything I can do if this fails.

Earlier this year we consulted an orthodontist for an appliance to stop thumb sucking. We had tried bribing, rewarding, begging and Mavala Stop. Nothing worked. Our orthodontist wanted us to try a technique using gloves before moving forward with an oral appliance.

He advised to take a pair of knit gloves, take a shoe lace and weave around the wrist. At bedtime put on the gloves and tie the lace at the wrist. My ortho said if we would do this for a week that it would break the thumbsucking habit. I am happy to report that it worked 100%. My son stopped sucking his thumb in January and has done no daytime or night sucking since then.

Lisa
Mom to Aidan, Christian, and Rachel (10.03.01 @ 36wks)

The only thing I know of that has worked for 99% of the kids I know of is Mavalo STOP. It is WAY nastier than anything in the drugstore, and stays on like fingernail polish. One of mine actually puked from it.

I should comment that the 1% it didn't work on was MY kid!

BGG born 4/25/05 at 31w1d




New baby girl born 9/19/06