The Dangers of Thumb Sucking
The Dangers of Thumb Sucking
For any parents, learning how to stop thumb sucking may seem like something trivial. After all, your child is simply staying comfortable after a tough day – right? Well, in turns out that you should make stopping thumb sucking a more significant priority than once thought. Thumb sucking has some rather long-term dangers to your child, and each can become an issue in later life. While thumb sucking is hardly likely to be a life-threatening issue, it does bring some rather concerning potential problems.
As a parent, caring for your child is the main part of the job. Looking after them and dealing with anything that could hurt them is your primary aim. Well, if someone was to make fun of your child or insult them, it would hurt you. What, though, if it was caused by not learning how to stop thumb sucking?
This might sound dramatic, but it’s with good reason. Thumb sucking is a blight on your child. While it might be something they enjoy and find comfort in, it’s not a good thing for your child to do. As such, we recommend that you consider the following long-term dangers of not stopping thumb sucking.
Stop Thumb Sucking: The Dangers of Thumb Sucking
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Teeth can be moved around. This is the most common reason why dealing with thumb sucking now is not just recommended – it’s essential. The longer it goes on, usually beyond age four, the more likely it becomes for teeth to move around. This can cause an underbite or an overbite, which can be distressing and hard to correct in later life.
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Speech impediments can form, too. This comes from young children’s jawbone positioning changing over a long-term period of time. When nothing is done to halt the thumb sucking, this can lead to a major alteration in jaw shape. This can then cause lisps and issue speaking with comfort on a regular basis.
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The roof of the mouth can become needlessly insensitive. The change in the mouth will become apparent as they cause this repetitive motion over and over. Eventually, this can lead to problems that can be quite uncomfortable. It can lead to alterations and excessive sensitivity – another reason to act and stop thumb sucking.
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The spread of germs and other irritants can then spread around the body. Being sucked into the mouth and then into the gut via saliva is hardly a good idea. While young children need to be resilient and build up a strong immune system, this isn’t exactly the way to go about doing it!
Stop Thumb Sucking: Finding a Solution
If you want to help deal with the danger of thumb sucking, the best way to start is to explain the above. Use it as a way to help show your child that this is part of growing up and that failing to grow up now could make life as a grown-up tough.
Should you still struggle, then solutions such as the Glovey Huggey can make a fine alternative that creates a positive distraction. Either way taking the time to act and stop thumb sucking is absolutely vital.