Getting Your Child to Stop Sucking Their Fingers

It seemed so cute at first, my little baby putting his tiny fingers in his mouth. However once he turned four years old, it was no longer cute, and more of an annoyance. Do you know that there are even adults who still suck their finger or thumb? Think for a minute would you want to be a round an adult who is constantly sucking their thumb. Well this can happen if you do not stop your child from sucking their fingers when they are still young.

My son sucked his fingers so bad, that he actually developed sores on them. I did not know what to do. I read every book and tried dozens of remedies to try to get him to stop but nothing seemed to work. The doctor told me that he might be doing this as some sort of comfort. She thought that maybe something was bothering him and this is why he still sucked his fingers. Well I finally found a solution that worked, it might seem a little weird, but I actually put tape on his fingers and told him not to take it off.

In my case my son mostly sucks his fingers at night when he is trying to fall asleep, so he did not walk around all day with tape on his fingers. After about a month of doing this every single night it worked he stopped sucking his fingers. I have spoken to other moms on this topic and there are a lot of different tips and tricks that parents have tried over the years. One mom tried putting hot sauce on her son’s fingers.

Not a lot of course just a small drop. Others have tried pepper. Whatever you decide to try you will want to make sure that there really is not some other reason they are sucking their fingers. Some children do this because they are emotionally upset about something. I was not aware of this until my pediatrician told me. If the problem is not handled then your child could grow up with some very serious emotional problems. Once cause may be divorce, or breakup of the family, or even if someone in the family dies. These situations are very hard for young children to deal with.

When children are young they are not sure how to handle their emotions. You should make it a point to talk to your children and make sure that this is not the case. Most of the time it is just a way children comfort themselves, just like they do with their favorite teddy bear, or blanket. Even though it may be cute to see that little baby sucking his thumb, I have learned a valuable lesson. No matter how cute it may be stop it as soon as you notice it. It is basically a bad habit that your child has developed.

When they are babies many people suggest that young children be given a pacifier, to keep them from sucking on their fingers. But some children (like mine) do not like the pacifier and refuse to use it. If this is the case you will probably end up taking their fingers out of their mouth almost all day. Or what you could do is by the little mittens that they sell for babies, and put them on when they are most likely to begin sucking their fingers. You will not want to keep them on all day, but maybe just at nap time, so that your child does not get used to falling asleep with their fingers in their mouth.