School is right around the corner, time to get serious about thumb sucking School is right around the corner, time to get serious about thumb sucking
As we approach the time of year when children start heading to school, some for the first time, parents are in full fear mode. Worrying about uniforms, how they settle, what teachers they get, paying for lunches and transport, and how the kids treat them is chaos for the mind. With that in mind, another problem you might need to worry about thumb sucking, and also learn how to stop thumb sucking.
Your child might be carrying this safety-mode habit with them still. It’s OK; every child who can suck their thumb will do so. It’s a safety mechanism and comes from their time in the womb. That being said, it’s still worrying when you see your child read school age and they are thumb sucking still. As endearing as it is when they are aged 1-4, after a while, it becomes a worry.
It also becomes a problem for your child. It can;
- Cause dental damage. Teeth can be pushed out of shape and line and can start to cause major problems with how the mouth lines up.
- Cause lots of pain later on. Teeth can become damaged and when adult teeth push through, they tend to cause lots of hurt and pain due to poor positioning.
- It can cause also the creation of an over or underbite. This is not an attractive look and is easily fixed if you just get your child to concentrate on doing so.
However, now that the time has come to start school, it might be time to get serious about this problem.
Tips to Stop Thumb Sucking Before School
- Create a rewards system for your child. It takes roughly 28 days to kill a habit, so for five weeks (just to be sure!) make sure your child does not thumb suck. For every day they succeed, they will earn some form of reward from you – or if they manage to go the month, they get a big reward.
- Don’t shout at your child for thumb sucking. they’ll be less likely to stop when this kind of standoff happens. Make it a statement of your child showing their age and maturity. Just like eventually wearing “big person pants” your child will want to mature and grow up. When they see that thumb sucking is for kids, they’ll want to stop.
- Make your child aware that others – not family – could bully them or pick on them for thumb sucking. As sad as it is, using that fear can be the perfect driver to make your child stop before they go back to take on the next stage of their lives and learn in school.
If you, like many other parents, are scared of what your child is producing due to thumb sucking then take action. A good solution for at-home stopping of thumb sucking is to buy a Glovey Huggey.
This can be used to make your child give up thumb sucking once and for all. A cool accessory and a useful tool? It’s the perfect disguise to finally get serious about thumb sucking.