Stop Thumbsucking Blog

At what age should I stop my child’s thumb sucking habit?…Ken Stevens

The short answer is “as soon as possible”. 15 to 30 months is the easiest time for the child and the parent. At this age, most children have a very short attention span and they will give up the thumb sucking habit with out too much resistance and won’t go back to it. As they get older, they grow attachments to habits easier because they are better able to compartmentalize their reasons for doing it. Understand that what I have said up until now refers only to damage that can be caused to the child’s teeth. From birth thru age 4 there are many other dangers that thumb sucking can cause. Displacement of the tongue can cause breathing restrictions and/or speech impediments, Children that thumb suck are more susceptible to colds, flu’s and many other diseases simply by putting a tainted thumb in their mouth. In short, there is no safe age to allow any child the habit of thumb sucking. Ages 4 thru 6 are the worst time for your child to be thumb sucking because the permanent teeth are arriving. And, the end result will be devastating to the alignment of those permanent teeth. After age 6, the focus evolves from an emphasis of physical problems to emotional problems. The child is now in school and quickly realizes that they are the minority when it comes to thumb sucking. They can become somewhat inward and reclusive because of the teasing from other children. They start thumb sucking only when they are alone and not being watched. They will pick spots where they can be by themselves. The parent has little knowledge of this because when the child is home they are in their sanctuary where mom and dad always pretend that it is ok to thumb suck. By this age, the child now has doubts as to weather it is ok to thumb suck. Even the parents are starting to give signs that it may no longer be ok to continue doing something that was always ok to do before. The child grows even more dependant on thumb sucking to the extent that it has now gone from a habit to an addiction. As they get older, most children actually want to stop but can’t do it by themselves. Nothing good can come from this habit and it is my advice that you stop your child’s thumb sucking habit “as soon as possible”.

          It’s not “rocket science”. The only way to cure your child’s habit is to keep their thumb out of their mouth and away from their mouth until they have lost their dependence on thumb sucking. The HANDAID will break any child of the thumb-sucking habit if you follow these directions:

          Pick a good day to start the HANDAID. If your child is in pre-school or grade school, then start the process on a Saturday morning because the first 48 hours will be the most challenging. Your child will push whatever button necessary to get you to take the HANDAID off. Your chance of success increases ten fold once you get past the first 48 hours. Check the blog at our website (www.Yourhandaid.com) for additional tips on how to start the HANDAID process. Remember, you are telling your child to stop doing something they have been doing since the beginning of time for them, something they always thought was right for them to do and, in many cases, encouraged by you. Do not be afraid to teach your child about the repercussions of continued thumb sucking. There are pictures on our website of braces, gates and other devices to help explain to your child what may happen if they refuse to stop. So, lets get started.

          The strap can be adjusted to their wrist size using the holes. Be sure that the strap is snug enough so that your child can not slide the HANDAID over their hand (if necessary, the holes in the wristband can be offset for a more exact fit). Put the HANDAID on your child. Join the thumb screws and turn them as tight as you can so that your child is unable to open them. Once you are sure of the strap size; you can cut off any excess that is left beyond the thumb screw. The HANDAID is to stay on your child’s hand for 3 full weeks (24/7); removing only for meals and baths. Then, for 1 additional week during sleep time only. HANDAID will not work if you are going to use it occasionally! Every child is different. Some children are cured of thumb-sucking in as little as 2 weeks; while others will take 3 to 5 weeks of wearing it 24/7. Use your best judgment. When you end daytime use and they gravitate back to their habit; they haven’t gotten over their dependence on it. We have found that the longer the child has been thumb-sucking, the longer it takes for them to quit. DO NOT BE FOOLED by early success. The HANDAID must stay on for the full amount of time. Just because your child is no longer complaining about the HANDAID on their hand does not mean they are cured of their habit. At age 3 or 4, thumb-sucking is a habit. That habit will become an addiction by age 6 or 7. Take a definite yet patient approach to this problem and you will be successful. My advice is that you do all of the work and let them have all of the success. Remember, your child’s next stop may be the Orthodontist who incorporates pain and discomfort into getting them to stop thumb sucking. There are pictures on our website of a device they will wire to the roof of their mouth to get them to stop.

          There are 2 HANDAIDS with your order because, in rare cases, some children may start to suck the other thumb. Also, if one of the HANDAIDS needs to be cleaned; be sure to hand wash (or delicate cycle) and air dry only. Remove the thumb screws before washing. Good luck to you and your child. Thanks again for your business and please tell another needy parent about HANDAID.

Thumbsucking and fingersucking can be devastating to a child’s teeth. If your child can break the thumb sucking habit before the permanent teeth arrive, the damage will be minimal. If their habit persists during the arrival of the permanent teeth and beyond, the upper front teeth will be pulled out and the lower front teeth pushed in due to the weight of the child’s arm pulling downward. Due to the disruption of the upper and lower front teeth, the side teeth are drawn inward due to a natural shrinking of the jaw to re-wedge the teeth together tightly. This is why some children need to have 2 or more upper and lower teeth pulled during realignment by their orthodontist. Finger sucking has a similar effect except the upper and the lower front teeth are pulled out because the child hooks 2 or more fingers over the bottom front teeth and is pulling out and down due to the weight of the child’s arm. The disruption of the child’s teeth is not the only problem that the parents should be concerned about. At HANDAID, we have received many e-mails from parents with children that have breathing disorders because the thumb has displaced the tongue and constricts the flow of air to their lungs. Any pediatrician will tell you that children with a sucking thumb or fingersucking habit are more susceptible to colds, flu and other diseases simply by putting a tainted thumb in their mouth. The main reason HANDAID was invented is because my son kept getting a disease called pinworm. Pinworm is a microscopic parasite that enters a child’s body through the mouth (thumb-sucking), goes through their entire system and makes it’s home in the rectum. It is extremely uncomfortable. The sense of this article is don’t wait. Your child needs to stop thumbsucking or stop fingersucking  ASAP. You can put upwards of ten thousand dollars into your child’s college fund or put the money into their mouth. The choice is yours.

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The best way to cure your child’s sucking thumb habit is to incorporate a plan that focuses on the immediate problem only without causing another problem. Any thumbsucking device is worthless if it interferes with the normal use of their thumb and, even worse, their hand. Tie your child’s hand behind their back and then tell them to go on with their normal day. The child is going to let you know immediately that they can’t use their hand and will continue to scream this information at you until you untie it. Well, this is what happens when you put most thumb sucking devices on your child’s thumb. Yes, they can’t suck their thumb. But, the bigger distraction is that they can’t use their thumb. The HANDAID covers only the bottom two thirds of the thumb. The top third is uncovered so your child can hold a pencil, a spoon or play on the computer. The only thing they can’t do is suck their thumb. Your child adapts to the custom fit quickly and the only time that they know that it is there is when they need to thumb suck. This is just one of HANDAID’S unique features which helps put you on the fast track to a thumb sucking cure or finger sucking cure. 

We want you to buy HANDAID with confidence. Here are 3 key reasons why HANDAID is your best thumb sucking cure:

Most sucking thumb cures are designed to be uncomfortable in the mouth. The HANDAID is designed to keep the hand away from the mouth. Your child’s hand never makes it into their mouth due to it’s patented design. And because of that design, it causes no pain to your child.

Any thumbsucking device is totally worthless if the child can remove it by themselves. HANDAID has a closure that is virtually impossible for them to open. It can only be removed with the help of someone else.

Saving the most important for last, HANDAID does not impede the use of the child’s hand. With most thumbsucking devices, the child looses full use of their thumb and, in most cases, the entire hand making it an incredible annoyance. HANDAID is designed to only address the thumb sucking problem without interrupting normal use of the thumb or hand. This single feature makes the rehabilitation so much easier for the child and the parent because it creates so much less of a distraction. The only thing that your child can’t do with HANDAID on is suck their thumb.

First and foremost, remember that you are telling your child to stop doing something that they have been doing since the beginning of time for them; something that they always thought was right for them to do and, in most cases, encouraged by you.

Let the work be yours and the success be your child’s. Encourage them. Give them confidence. Make them believe that they are not alone in this quest. Attacking the problem with these things in mind makes your success inevitable. Now, let’s get started.

Remember, no one knows your child better that you and, unfortunately, no one knows you better that your child. What I am trying to say is that your child knows exactly what “buttons” to push in order to get you to do and stop doing something. Take a definite yet patient approach to this problem. Pick a perfect day to start the procedure. If your child is in daycare or grade school, start on Saturday morning. The first 36 to 48 hours will be the most difficult.

When using the HANDAID to cure your child’s sucking thumb or sucking finger problem, place the HANDAID on their hand and secure the closure with the understanding that it is not coming off for 3 full weeks except for meals and baths. Your child will quickly realize that they are not able to suck their thumb. They will try to remove it and will be unable to. Then, they will come to you and delve into their vast memory bank and use the most effective way to get you to take this thing off!!!

Do NOT give in to their demand. If you do; they win. It will be 5 times harder for you to even put it back on their hand if you give in just once. Children have a very short attention span. They will try as many different ways as possible to get you to take it off. But, they will always give up because they just don’t have the patience that an adult has. Just keep telling yourself that if you fail at this the next step is taking them to the orthodontist to solve their thumb sucking problem. It will be expensive and the orthodontist will incorporate pain and much discomfort to accomplish their mission.

The first night of wearing the HANDAID, keep them up as late as you have to. Take them for a long walk or play some very active games to tire them out. When they start to get tired put them in their car seat and take them for a drive until they fall asleep. Keep driving and let them wake up 1 or 2 more times so that they can be introduced to falling asleep without the help of their thumb. Now, put them to bed. They will probably wake up 1 or 2 times during the night and cry. Don’t run to their side. Give them a chance to fall back to sleep again by themselves. They did it before, they can do it again. Thumbsucking during sleep time takes your child to a very secure place where they can fall asleep. They have to learn that they can achieve that security without sucking their thumb.

In the morning, praise them for their success. Explain to them what they have accomplished. Get your spouse involved also. Even if they do not know exactly what your happiness is about, they are exited to see you happy about them.

When you get through the first full day and the first full night, your chances of complete success have multiplied ten fold. Each day will be easier that the previous. The HANDAID is designed so that it does not impede the use of your child’s hand in any way. As the days go by, they will forget that it is even on their hand. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY EARLY SUCCESS ! ! Just because your child is no longer complaining about the HANDAID does not mean that they are cured. It must stay on for the full 3 weeks and then 1 more week during sleep-time only. They have to forget about their dependency on their thumb.

With some Orthodontists, asking them to cure your child’s thumb sucking problem is like asking the drug companies to concentrate their efforts on curing cancer. For both of them, treating the damage is much more beneficial to them than curing the cause of the problem. I get so many e-mails from parents who went to an orthodontists or pediatric dentists for information on how to stop their 3 or 4 year old child’s sucking thumb habit. This professional then responds by saying “ Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that until they are 7 or 8 years old”. By that time, all the damage has been done and the child’s  “habit “ has turned into an “addiction“. There addiction is now 10 times more difficult to break and there are now emotional issues that the child is also dealing with. I would recommend going to your child’s pediatrician for help and referral. If you are referred to a dentist or orthodontist, be very selective about the advice that you are given. There is nothing to be gained by extending your child’s thumb habit. And in my opinion, it is never too early to stop your child’s thumbsucking or fingersucking habit. At HANDAID, we have provided a thumb sucking cure for children as young as 18 months and as old as 15 years.

Sucking thumb is a habit that affects one out of every ten children, and few children can stop thumbsucking without parental intervention. Most children don’t stop thumb sucking until damage has been done to the permanent alignment of their teeth. Orthodontists claim that their most serious cases of tooth malformation are caused by thumbsucking. The cost of repairing tooth alignment is typically thousands of dollars. In severe cases the child will require surgery to realign their teeth, the cost often resulting in ten, twenty or thirty thousand dollars. 

In addition, thumbsucking can cause months and years of pain and discomfort for your child. Pediatricians claim that thumb sucking children are more susceptible to colds, flus and other diseases because a dirty thumb is in their mouth. And there is significant emotional embarrassment that your child will endure because of their addiction.

You may be concerned about your child’s thumbsucking. Is it harmful? At what age should your child stop thumbsucking? What could happen if your child doesn’t stop thumb sucking.

Children begin thumbsucking because sucking is a baby’s natural reflex. The sucking reflex serves various purposes as infants get older. Thumb sucking may make an infant feel secure and happy. Thumbsucking, finger sucking and sucking on pacifiers help a baby learn about their world. Children may also begin thumb sucking to soothe themselves. Thumbsucking is relaxing for a child and therefore may help induce sleep.

After the child’s permanent teeth come in, thumbsucking may cause problems with the proper growth of the mouth and the permanent alignment of the teeth. Thumb sucking can also cause malformations in the roof of the mouth. The intensity of the thumb sucking is a factor as to whether dental problems may occur. A child who rests the thumb passively in their mouth is less likely to promote mouth damage than a child who is vigorously thumbsucking. Aggressive thumb sucking may cause problems with baby (primary) teeth. If changes in a child’s primary teeth become apparent from thumbsucking, consult your dentist.

Children should have ceased sucking by the time the permanent front teeth are ready to erupt. Usually children stop between the ages of two and four years.

Pacifiers can affect the teeth essentially the same ways as finger sucking and thumbsucking. However, it is often easier to break the habit of sucking a pacifier opposed to thumb sucking or finger sucking.

Tips:

• Praise children for not thumb sucking.
• Children often begin thumbsucking when they feel insecure or need comfort. Focus on correcting the cause of the child’s anxiety and provide comfort to your child.
• For an older child, involve him or her in choosing the method of how to stop thumbsucking.
• A dentist can offer encouragement to a child and explain what could happen to their teeth if they do not stop thumbsucking.
• If the above tips don’t work, purchasing the Handaid can cure your child’s thumbsucking habit.