As you can see – he just looks TOO cute!
It is not easy to stop thumb sucking. We have gone through stopping thumb sucking with my beloved Stuntboy. He got into the habit because of reflux when he was little, and he always looked so cute….I didn’t want to stop him. Boy did I make my own bed…. *ahem*
So to help all the other mums going through similar, we have a stop thumb sucking behaviour on our sticker charts which you can build on our website. In addition to this, we also have had a wee chatette with Kate Barlow of The Parent Consultancy about how we can help our little ones on the road to stopping putting that wee thumb in their mouth.
Apologies in advance for Kate’s sound on this, do turn it up when she speaks, its worth it, her microphone seems to have had an off day, particularly at the end of this hangout.
We discuss:
- Why its important to stop thumb sucking?
- When should we be encouraging them to stop?
- What strategies, other than reward charts, might we use to help stop thumb sucking?
- Should we go cold turkey?
- Should we use incentives to help?
- What do we do when we do see our children reaching for the thumb?
- What about thumb guards and nail varnish? Would these help? Why might we use them to stop thumb sucking?
- Do we explain about braces to them?
Do you have any other strategies to help stop thumb sucking? What worked with your child? What didn’t work? Let us know below.
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!