Anyone have any ideas on how to get a child to stop sucking their thumb. We tried a code word, and she just thought it was a game. Now that winter is set in her poor thumb hurts and it horribly chapped but she won't stop sucking. I'm fresh out of ideas.

Does she suck her thumb with a blankie or anything? I had three thumb suckers (all my girls. Scotty was a pacie baby); two had blankies and one had a soft baby doll. When those were taken away, the thumb automatically came out of the mouth.

We weaned from the thumb. Started out by saying thumb sucking could only be done in bed (also allowed it in the car for our own sanity! lol). Thumb sucking blankies and dollies had to stay in the bed. If the thumb went into the mouth during the day, we'd say the thumb had to come out unless they wanted to lie down in bed. They usually didn't want to do that. If they put the thumb in while watching a movie or something, we'd say the same thing. No thumb or hop into bed. :-D

After awhile we started working on them at night. Removed thumb sucking blankies and dollies... Two of the three pretty much stopped automatically. Courtney was a tougher nut to crack. She'd fall asleep and then her thumb would find its way into her mouth. We started putting a fuzzy red glove on her thumb sucking hand. LOL! She tried taking it off one night, but we threatened to spank her. Took less than a week to finally get her through it with the glove on. :-D

[lovesign]

Joy [welcomewave]

You know, when Zi, my oldest was 3 or 4, I think it was, we took her to the dentist... the dentist told her that she was too old to be sucking her thumb, and that it was hurting her teeth... Now, I really didn't think much of it, and prepared myself for a battle... bribes, yucky stuff on the thumb, you name it.

The child never sucked her thumb again. Like never.

So, that probably doesn't help at all, lol, but there is hope!