by
Wafeeq Sabir, Ph.D
Roberts and Baird (1971) suggest that thumb sucking is considered a common childhood issue that occurs with children between 6-11 years (as cited in Clowes-Hollins & King, 1982). My colleague's 10-year old daughter, Tourae, has been sucking her right thumb since she was an infant. She is a fifth grader and receives B’s and C’s on most of her report cards. She is very athletic and enjoys basketball and cheerleading. She is very competitive with her 12-year old brother and seeks to gain his attention through annoying chatter. Tourae use to suck her thumb morning, noon, and night. Practically every moment of the day, she spent sucking her thumb. However, her parents have noticed that within the past few months, she sucks her thumb only when watching television or when she’s sleepy. No aversive methods or other forms of punishment have been utilized to change this behavior. She has been lectured by most of her immediate family concerning this issue. Her aunt, who was a chronic thumb sucker, has advised her that as she gets older, it will be very unappealing to others and that she may develop teeth problems. These lectures seem to be of no avail. A home based study was conducted and published in the Journal of Clinical Child Psychology (1982), which demonstrated that a reinforcement system versus a punishment system seemed to reduce the frequency of thumb sucking by 65%. My colleague and his wife have a 10-month old son, and Tourae is now an aunt of her 20-year old brother’s 3 week old newborn. It will be interesting to note if the developmental changes of her infant brother and niece will change her behavior and attitude concerning thumb sucking.
References:
Clowes-Hollins, V., & King, Neville (1982). Parents and siblings as behavior modifiers in the control of a common developmental problem (thumbsucking). Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 45(3), 231-233.
Roberts, J., & Baird, J. T. (1971). Parent ratings of behavioral patterns of children. Washington, DC.
Wafeeq Sabir, Ph.D
Roberts and Baird (1971) suggest that thumb sucking is considered a common childhood issue that occurs with children between 6-11 years (as cited in Clowes-Hollins & King, 1982). My colleague's 10-year old daughter, Tourae, has been sucking her right thumb since she was an infant. She is a fifth grader and receives B’s and C’s on most of her report cards. She is very athletic and enjoys basketball and cheerleading. She is very competitive with her 12-year old brother and seeks to gain his attention through annoying chatter. Tourae use to suck her thumb morning, noon, and night. Practically every moment of the day, she spent sucking her thumb. However, her parents have noticed that within the past few months, she sucks her thumb only when watching television or when she’s sleepy. No aversive methods or other forms of punishment have been utilized to change this behavior. She has been lectured by most of her immediate family concerning this issue. Her aunt, who was a chronic thumb sucker, has advised her that as she gets older, it will be very unappealing to others and that she may develop teeth problems. These lectures seem to be of no avail. A home based study was conducted and published in the Journal of Clinical Child Psychology (1982), which demonstrated that a reinforcement system versus a punishment system seemed to reduce the frequency of thumb sucking by 65%. My colleague and his wife have a 10-month old son, and Tourae is now an aunt of her 20-year old brother’s 3 week old newborn. It will be interesting to note if the developmental changes of her infant brother and niece will change her behavior and attitude concerning thumb sucking.
References:
Clowes-Hollins, V., & King, Neville (1982). Parents and siblings as behavior modifiers in the control of a common developmental problem (thumbsucking). Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 45(3), 231-233.
Roberts, J., & Baird, J. T. (1971). Parent ratings of behavioral patterns of children. Washington, DC.
15 comments:
Thumb sucking is a habit that is formed from infancy that continues into childhood if not controlled by parental guidance to stop the habit before it is a reoccurring bad habit. It is considered a "bad habit" because it damages your facial structure, especially the gums and the form of teeth growth.
Some parents tend to to not take the responsibility into controlling the habit by saying "they won't stop", "she/he loves it", "it won't hurt if they do it until age 5", or the most common, "it helps them relax". In reality, so does a glass of warm milk, a pacifier, or a relaxed environment. A child will not respond to telling them "your teeth will look bad when you get older". I feel it is the parents responsibilty to control thumb sucking at a considerable age. In reality, the parent will be the one to take the child to the dentist to pay for it, and have to suffer the payments of teeth reconstruction, so you would think that's motivation enough to encouraged the child not to continue. Just like a parent knows when to stop breastfeeding, pacifier dependency, and pull ups; thumb sucking can also be trained to end for long term results.
Thumb sucking is a pet peeve of mines. I truly believe that it stems from the lack of parental involvement when it comes to stopping it at its initial occurrence. In my experience in child raising, my child never once sucked her thumb nor a pacifier. Even if she puts her fingers in her mouth, I am consistent at teaching her it’s not okay. If more parents reinforce this when their children are babies, I believe that they will be conditioned enough to understand that fingers don’t go in their mouth.
I see adults on occasion that teeth are deformed from childhood habits of sucking their thumbs. Some people in their 30s and 40s still suck their thumbs.
I think constant reinforcement is necessary. I don’t believe that punishing a child for this habit is right. Thumb sucking can be prevented!
Thumb sucking is one of the most bad habits you can have growing up. I have a cousin who is a junior in high school and he still sucks his thumb while watching tv, at school, and sleeping. I believe this habit could be broken if the parents took more time with parenting. Children who suck their thumb tend to have teeth problems as they get older and tend to have bad breath
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I believe that thumb sucking is a habit created by the child for comfort, but continued because the parent doesnt take the time to enforce habbit breaking solutions. My daughter sucked her two fingers from the time she was born. when she got off the bottle I started using positive reinforcements to get her to stop. If I saw her sucking them I would pull them out of her mouth and say no. this would happen over and over and over. as soon as I would pull them out I would start playing a game, sing, or give her a cookie. slowly she started only sucking them when she had her favortie blanket or when she was tired. So as she got older we worked on a point system everytime I saw her sucking them i took a point away. at the end of the week if she had a certain amount of points I would take her somewhere fun. It takes alot of parenting, and patience but it is something that should be stopped before it becomes to habbit forming and causes major damage to teeth.
if kids want 2 suck their thumb let them u cant force a child not to do somethin. i dont see how sucking ur thumb is lack of parenting..if sucking their thumb makes them feel confortable and happy i think u should just let it b, eventually they will stop doin it. yanely garcia
Not that I agree with sucking your thumb at the age of 10, but for an infant/early toddler I do not see anything wrong with it.
My daughter wasn't a thumb or finger sucker, but she loved her pacifier. I did not giver her the pacifier all the time, only when she needed comforting and when she was going to sleep. She gave it up on her own at the age of 2 and hasn't gone back. (She is 2 1/2 now).
I honestly believe that a child will give up a "bad" habit if there are other ways/things they can do in its place. This along with positive parental guidance, a child will eventually follow in what you the parent would like them to do. Lecturing doesn't always work, in fact, it can make things worse.
my cousins daughter sucks her thumb watching t.v and when sleeping too, she has a big blister on her thumb because of how hard she sucks it, and she already has teeth problems. The reason i think the reason she does it is because my cousin still sucks her pinky finger, and as long as i remember she has always sucked on her finger. I also think there has some childhood abuse that caused that for my cousin.
My son is eighteen years old and still sucks his thumb. The only break from this habit in his eighteen, soon to be nineteen, years was a few weeks after he had his tongue pierced. He said it was uncomfortable. I was elated when he had to stop,whatever the reason.
He has sucked his thumb since birth, and when I ask him why he continues the habit, he says that it calms him down. When he tells me that, I understand and feel that this was a habit developed in utero. My pregnancy with him was very stressful,so I feel he used the thumb sucking to calm himself. I would love for a study to be done to examine the correlation between stressful pregnancies and thumb sucking.
My niece is a thumb sucker and me and my mother have tried for years to get her to stop. I have noticed that since her younger sister makes fun of her sometimes she only sucks her thumb while sleepy or trying to go to sleep just like in your blog. We have a sonogram of her at 8 months sucking her thumb before she even was born. When we try to stop her she always tell us but my daddy sucks his thumb and believe it or not he does. But she also likes sports and is very athletic. She makes As in school but does get in trouble for talking to much!!
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well I think as a parent if the child starts thumb sucking at a young age you should show them that they shouldnt do it so they will grow out of the habit. But lots of parents avoid doing that, that they keep doing it and there older and see that its not pretty anymore and then they try to break the habit and its to late.
Having witnessed my cousin, a 23 year old male still suck his thumb before falling asleep and while he's watching t.v, I think it is absolutely ridiculous. With enough time and attention to that issue from the parents, you can, without a doubt stop a child from sucking their thumb, and it should be stopped. Thumb sucking, once becomes a habit, is probably the hardest to stop, and the teeth damage and bullying that can happen in the result of not breaking the habit, it worse than upsetting your child by forcing them to break the habit.
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