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breaking a child's bad habit
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We’ve recently begun trying to get ds5 to stop sucking his fingers. I’m trying rewards, such as getting a car out of timeout if he can keep his fingers out of his mouth for a designated time or getting a snack if he can do it at the grocery store. Any other ideas out there?
Thanks,
Karen
We just recently were able to break the habit of our 5 year old ds sucking her thumb. Beware, we broke the thumb sucking habit and habit after habit has been replacing it. She just has so much energy, it’s hard not to do something mindless. 🙁
What worked for us was band-aids or thumbusters (this is designed for thumbs, but would also work well on one or two fingers – http://www.thumbusters.com/). We talked a lot about not sucking her thumb because it would hurt her mouth (need a spreader later) and because it was a great way for germs to get into her mouth and make her sick. Once she was ready to stop sucking, she was receptive to gentle reminders to keep it out and wanted to wear band-aids. It wasn’t until she was ready to stop that we made progress. But we kept talking about it and trying and eventually it worked.
Good luck. It’s a hard habit to break.
Hey Karen,
From my experience with two thumb suckers, when they are ready they quit on their own without any coaxing. My first DS never sucked his thumb but my second DD and third DS both sucked their thumb ALL THE TIME..and one day at about 5 yr. old they both just stopped. No hassles or pleading. I don’t really know what to contribute it to except for prayer. I did pray that God would intervene and he did. Seriously, it was a stop cold turkey sort of thing for both of my kiddos. I couldn’t believe it!! BUT then again why should I be surprised..GOD can do anything.
Shelly
Oh I forgot to mention I have a three year old DD who sucks her thumb…I will let you know how that goes in about two years. She is a little more stubborn so we will see how God works with her.
Shelly
My four year old recently went from sucking her thumb during the day to nail bitting. She still sucks her thumb at night. If someone has any ideas on how to break the nail biting habit, I’m all ears!
I have successfully used a product called Control-It from Stop Biting Nails on all 3 of my kids. It is a very bitter tasting, but harmless cream that I rub in like a lotion. You can find it through an online search, though I’ve never seen it locally.
We, personally, did not want these habits continuing long term and preferred to stop them before age 2.
DD # 1 would bite her nails until they bled when she was about 1.5, so I obviously needed to stop that. This product worked in about 2 weeks for her and we’ve never looked back.
DS, our #2, was an avid thumb sucker and at 20 months, I was tired of telling him to take his thumb out to talk. I used Control-It and after the 1st day, he never sucked his thumb again. I continued to put the cream on for 2 weeks, though.
DD #2, who is currently 2 and was also a light thumb sucker (bedtime and when sick or injured) has been using Control It for a week and a half and has only once sucked her thumb (when I forgot the cream). Her teeth were already being shifted by the way she sucked and I would rather stop the habit now anyway. So, she has probably another week or so with the cream and then she’ll be done.
I’ve recommended this to several friends who have also had great success with it.
Best wishes on the habit breaking!
Christie
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