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anyone have to break a two year old of thumb sucking due to nasty thumb?
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Hi there,
So, my actually only 22 month old is a big time thumb sucker. Not usually a problem as I figured I would break her of it later or by the grace of God she would give it up on her own. Well, her thumb was looking really gross – peeling, blistered, and we were getting concerned. Then it split with a big huge cut down the middle and was bleeding. So, I am not going to let her suck on that! I put some medicine on and a band aid over it and around it and we are suffering. It has been ok for times when she is hungry or something, not too much repercussion then, but sleep time has us both in tears.. Naps are a joke – today was about 13 times to go back and put her down in an hour. She never slept. Bedtime is the same until she exhausts herself and just falls asleep. We have been having some bedtime issues anyway as we had to change her to a toddler bed when she started leaping to her death from her crib, but that was finally actually going ok until a couple days ago. I am so wore out. I feel bad for her cause I know she is lost in trying to soothe herself without her thumb. I try to explain it in toddler terms that her thumb has to heal and tried to give her like a little blanket/toy to snuggle instead, but it aint working to say the least! I figure I have a week of covering her thumb to let it heal cause it is so tore up. It would be nice if she decided in that time that she didn’t need to suck her thumb anymore but she may be too young… Anyone else go through this? Any ideas? Thank you for any sharing!!
Two of my four were thumb suckers. I decided to break them of the habit at 20 and 22 months old, not due to a health issue, but simply because we decided it was time. I used a cream called Control It! and it worked for both within a week or two. I used it on my oldest who would bite her nails to the point of blood at 18 months old. It worked for all 3. Perhaps that might help. One of mine was easy, the other was a bit more difficult about it, but I kept using the cream for a month and never needed it again.
No help here either. My only thumb sucker our of 7 kids is now 6 and she just (as in this month) decided that she was ready to stop sucking her thumb. It was only during bedtime that she did it at this point. We pulled out a pair of winter gloves that have a velcro strap at the wrist too and she put them on each night. A week later she was done and a happy big girl.
This is a tough thing for a little one to go through, and so hard on you too. I understand! My current 11 year old fell when he was two and bit a huge hole in his tongue and for weeks couldn’t really put anything in his mouth. It was so sad. 🙁
Anyway I was trying to brainstorm with you what you might be able to do to help her. I wonder if you were to lay down with her quietly, would that help her to transition?
You could also set up a CD player in her room with soothing music playing quietly, or some of the Jim Weiss stories for bedtime. That might distract her. Mine usually fall asleep while the CD plays. Then eventually when they are older they’ll usually decide they don’t want the music/stories anymore, or we’ll just begin to phase them out.
I’ll keep thinking and see if I can remember anything else that has helped out with some of our littles. And praying she’ll sleep peacefully tonight.
~Jenn
We had break the habit for my 3 year old this past July. The denstist said that her jaw was being affected so even though she looked so darn cute we hat to stop it inmediately. He gave us a nail polish called “Mavala Stop” that tastes horrible (trust me!). I applied it to both her thumbs every other day and got ready for the storm! (she used it to go to sleep). She cried and cried the first two days, she would go to sleep and wake up crying cause she would such on it while asleep. But then it started getting better and now she is fine. Of course, our afternoon naps suffered because of it cause now she wont take them! not having the thumb to calm her down makes her wanna play! oh well..you win some and you lose some 🙂 Hope you can both make it!
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