[dcmeller]

My sister has a 10 year old that still sucks her thumb. :eek: Any suggestions on how we can break that habit?

[RedneckMama]

Try hot sauce on the thumb... or something equally disgusting to the kid...

Try bribing her: "If you go all day long w/out sucking your thumb, we'll go get you that so&so you've been wanting..."

Have you tried asking her WHY she does it? Maybe it's a calming technique she uses to relieve herself of stress... maybe you could buy her a diary and tell her that anytime she feels like she wants to suck her thumb, she should write down how she feels and why... at least that will draw her attention to the behavior and the feelings, and allow her to process all of that herself...

Good luck...

[Moparbyfar]

My 6 yr old sucks her thumb and I'm beginning to think it's a lost cause trying to get her to quit. We've even tried a pharmaceutical product called "Stopit!" that tastes disgusting, but she seemed to become immune to it after a while.

My brother sucked his thumb till he was about 14. He finally realised that it wasn't cool and stopped pretty much overnight.

What about setting up a reward-chart for her? After every 1/2 hr that she doesn't plug it in, she gets a sticker, then at the end she gets a nice little treat. Something like that anyway is all I can think of.

Incidentally, my Dad put iodine on my thumb when I was 5 which stopped me from sucking.

[danielnoahsmommy]

Borrow a microscope and take a swab of her thumb and place on slide. Let her view it. Trust me she will stop

[NowWhat]

Don't worry about it - is another option.
My child is 7 and still sucks her thumb. I was a thumb sucker until I was 12. Kids will grow out of it.

If she is doing it in public, at dinner, whatever - then put restictions on it. But if it a bedtime thing that gets the child settled or calmed down - just wait for this to pass. It will.