The battle against thumb sucking, round 2

Last fall, I wrote about our attempts to stop Kate from sucking her thumb. So far, we’ve been unsuccessful – the taking her thumb out of her mouth, the nagging, the reasoning, the pleading and the warnings from the dentist. All non-starters.

But the dental risks and the colds she catches on a monthly basis have finally pushed my wife into action. The colds usually jump from one family member to another—so we all pay for the germ-delivery system that Kate employs.

I received all types of advice from readers in response to that post, from peer pressure to installing a thumb apparatus, to vinegar or hot sauce, to doing nothing and letting her outgrow it when she’s ready. I also heard stories of people who sucked their thumbs into their thirties.

One reader commented, “My brother was still sucking his thumb at 7 or 8. My mom bribed him with the promise of a new bike. It worked. Sometimes parents have to use whatever it takes.”

So we’ve deployed a similar system of reward and penalties, (or you could call it bribery). We give her four quarters every morning, and then take away a quarter every time we catch her with the thumb in her mouth.

Sometimes she’ll end up with all four coins, sometimes with none. She does it for comfort, so she usually does it when I’m reading her bedtime books, when she’s watching TV, or in the car seat—so that’s when we’re on high alert.

At bedtime, she tapes her coins to a chart on her door. When the chart is full, we’ve promised her that she can replace her car seat for a brand new booster seat.

She gets very excited about this prospect, as many of her Kindergarten friends are already out of their car seats and have graduated to the next level: Big girl status.

A week in, we have made some progress, as she doesn’t suck her thumb nearly as much. During school, it’s impossible to monitor this, but on the weekends, the system is in full effect.

Hopefully, it won’t take more than a month to get her weaned off this habit. I’ll let you know how it goes.

TELL ME: How have you successfully stopped sucking your thumb or stopped your child from doing it?

Mark Uyemura has officially traded in his bachelorhood to go all in to the dad life. When not mowing his spacious lawn, fixing something on his 80-year old house, or detailing the 16-inch plastic wheel covers on his minivan, he’s at his day job continuously improving the Orange County Register’s web site. Mark is a Cal State Fullerton grad, and lives in nearby Brea with his wife, Andrea, 5-year-old daughter, Kate, and two trusty old dogs, Cooper and Andy.

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