Isabel’s Story: Breaking The Habit of Sucking Her Thumb

Enjoy Isabel’s inspiring story below, and read more reviews from parents on the Thumbsie®:

We took Isabel’s dummy away at the age of 3 and thought that she would just stop her sucking habit just as her sisters had done – but unfortunately, she started thumb sucking instead!

Isabel had always been a sucky baby and found it really hard to stop. After two years of trying, cajoling, persuading, bribing and rewarding, we were at our wits’ end.

By this time her thumb was sore and I was concerned about the potential teeth and jaw damage, as was her dentist. She wanted to stop – and I was desperate to help her.

The Options

I searched for solutions on the internet on how to stop thumb sucking, but the thumb guards I found were either made of plastic which looked uncomfortable or dull surgical material. Using a nasty tasting liquid seemed harsh and I was worried about the effect on her sensitive skin as she suffered from eczema.

I needed to find something that was a positive experience which was fun, rewarding and effective.
Then eventually, we broke the thumb sucking habit soon after we started using “Thumbsie”….

Fabric Thumb Guards Developed

She wore the thumb glove all the time. She could do anything with it on: write, colour, eat, even play on her Nintendo!! She wore different thumb guards on different days and was proud to wear them to school. Her sisters helped by saying it was really cool to wear it. She didn’t want to take it off and it was really helping her to stop sucking her thumb. I soon found that we needed more than one thumb guard to keep things hygienic; we made choosing new material for her second and third ones exciting and she looked forward to them being ready to wear, and she looked forward to filling in her reward chart.

The night times were harder but again we tried to make it fun by giving her a choice of which of the thumb guards to wear; will it be Butterflies, Penguins or the Monkeys? Again we set a reward linked to five consecutive successful nights if she wore it and didn’t thumb suck. We had a visible rewards chart on her bedroom wall to help prevent the thumb sucking.

She did well and managed to go to sleep. Day four was tough, she just wouldn’t go to sleep, she kept asking to take it off. However, we persevered and she did drop off to sleep after about 45 minutes. The next night after a chat she went straight to sleep with no fuss and without thumb sucking, she knew we were not going to give in – and she got more reward stickers than ever!

The Outcome

After this, we never looked back. Within three weeks she had stopped wearing her “Thumbsie” during the day when we were with her; she wasn’t tempted to put her thumb in her mouth.

It was a family effort of which we are all very proud….and the “Thumbsie” made it fun and rewarding for my 5-year-old who now no longer has a thumb sucking habit.’ Let’s hope like Isabel they help more thumb sucking children.

Please go to the section shop for thumb guards or shop for finger guards to choose your Thumbsies® or to read about whether wearing a Thumbsie® really works.