Tried talking to your child about thumb sucking with no success? Try this

Tried talking to your child about thumb sucking with no success? Try this

When raising a child, we often fantasize and think about all those little moments together. Days down at the park, little moments when they meet their first animals and like. Those special little moments where you see their eyes lighting up and their little hearts exploding with knowledge and joy. Yet not every moment as a parent is quite like this; in fact, you will often find that more moments require you to have limitless patience with a naughty child! With that being the case, you might already be dealing with a child who is prone to thumb sucking.

While it is cute in a baby, any child aged 3-4 should really be cutting out thumb sucking before aiming to stop entirely come around age 4. However, you might be finding that your child will simply not play ball when it comes to stopping.

How to teach your child about the negative effects of thumb sucking?

You will have likely tried to talk to them about the issue. Like most things with a child, dialogue is often one of the best ways for you to give your child the help and assistance that they need to learn and grow. However, sometimes you will find they simply do not want to learn because the outcome is not something they wish to know. If you tell them they need to stop thumb sucking, then they might not even listen to your reasoning: they will simply see it as a bad thing, so won’t take part.

This is where you might want to try and use something in their own little world to try to teach them. What do they like the most in terms of TV shows? They might be really into things like Paw Patrol, for example. So, why not look up an episode of Paw Patrol and find a storyline involving one of the characters having to break a habit?

Creating a narrative they can grasp

With this technique, you give your child the chance to understand not only why they need to change but why the changes are useful for them. They get to see a character that they love and respect go through the same journey, so are more willing to try it out for themselves. However, even this might not be enough to eradicate thumb sucking entirely.

Even if you notice a reduction, though, that is a positive worth clinging to. We recommend, though, that you look to reward them with a Glovey Huggey. Disguised as a stylish little glove that your child will love, it will give them a cool and cute design they won’t want to take off. And the secret? It also stops them from thumb sucking, yet the pull and the allure of their awesome little glove will surely be enough to make them give up thumb sucking long-term!

It can be tough to get your child to do what you want when you want. With this simple suggestion, though, you can turn a challenging issue like stopping thumb sucking into a simple act of psychology and reward.