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 Neale
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, website editor and a qualified counsellor with experience of working with both children and adults.She is a registered member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapists, with her own private practise. She also freelances with her local Mind organisation.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, use those grey cells at the same time, and supplement her counselling income.KiddyCharts has reach of over 680k across socials and the site. The site works with big family brands to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. She is a specialist counsellor for neurodivergent individuals and brings this expertise to her resources and the site. She is also an ADHDer herself.KiddyCharts gives 51%+ profits to charities, focused on supporting mental health and a community in TanzaniaHelen has also 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!