Rewards helped Poppy to break the thumb sucking habit in just 14 days!

With Thumbsie® it’s all about reward and we believe that the best and quickest way to help your child to stop thumb sucking is to encourage and praise.

That’s exactly how Poppy, aged 5, managed to break the thumb sucking habit in just a couple of weeks, with the help of her mum and some magical unicorns.

Elly, Poppy’s mum takes up the story:

“Poppy has sucked her thumb since she was tiny and has never showed any interest in stopping, until I showed her the Thumbsie® website and we read the success stories.  Poppy saw the unicorn Thumbsie and she got really excited, so we ordered two Thumbsies®, the Thumbsie® book and a reward chart.

When our parcel arrived Poppy was excited and nervous, she put her Thumbsie® straight on and we set a goal of keeping her Thumbsie® on for a whole week, and for each day she managed to keep it on, she would get a sticker. The first day she was worried about getting it dirty, so kept taking it off and accidentally putting her thumb in her mouth. We gently reminded her about getting a sticker for wearing her Thumbsie® all the time and from then on she kept it on all day and all night.

The first bedtime was the hardest, we read the Thumbsie® book, ‘Thumbs Up for Ted’s Thumbsie®’ said a prayer and then left Poppy to settle. It took her a while but she eventually managed to get to sleep! We were so proud of her and celebrated with a sticker and a special breakfast!

Reward Chart

Poppy achieved her goal of 7 stickers and she was rewarded with a toy figure. So we set a goal of 7 more stickers and afterwards we said we would buy her some nail varnish.

After a few days Poppy told me she didn’t want to suck her thumb anymore, but we encouraged her to keep her Thumbsie® on just in case her “cheeky thumb, snuck into her mouth by accident.” After wearing her Thumbsie® for 7 more days and 7 nights, Poppy said she didn’t need her thumb guard anymore.  So we let her go to sleep without her Thumbsie® and in the morning she proudly told me that she didn’t even suck her thumb once! She has broken the thumb sucking habit and we are so, so proud of her!

We celebrated by painting all of her fingernails for the first time ever! Thank you so much Thumbsie® for making this such a fun experience and a great life experience for Poppy! We will definitely recommend you! It seems our Unicorn thumb guards are popular, Natalie gives us too with her Unicorn Thumbsie®