Thumb sucking is normal during early infancy. But As a child grow, parents do not want that their child has a habit of thumb sucking. They try to find a way that helps to stop thumb sucking in their child. Thumb sucking is done when the child is disturbed, lonely, hungry, or satisfies his urge. It is a perfectly acceptable and common phenomenon in less than a year old child But not in the older children as a bad habit.
REASON OF THUMB SUCKING
Before we move on to the “way to stop thumb sucking” let’s talk about what are the reasons children do this. Thumb sucking is a self comfortable behavior in infants. A hungry child will not only put his thumb but his whole hand into his mouth. Sometimes the child finishes his bottle quickly and he has nothing to do so, he sucks his thumb.
Usually, babies who are bottle-fed are more likely to their thumb than those who are breastfed. This is because the baby gets his milk quickly through the bottle and the child is not able to satisfy his sucking urge. This case is also in the breastfed baby if the child’s sucking urge is not fully satisfied.
Whereas An older child is not aware that he is sucking his thumb. A child will not spend time sucking his thumb if he sees interesting things around him and finds his home life occupying. Due to the emotional problem older child unawarely sucks his thumb.
TIPS TO STOP THUMB SUCKING
To help a child, the parent’s first step is to ignore them. Because as children grow, The habit of thumb sucking usually goes away. Most school children have habits like thumb sucking during sleeping or during tension. These children will aware slowly and try to overcome these habits. If parents think that the child habit is not going away at a time they should remember these points:
- Calmly point out to the children about their behavior you don’t like. Do not scold them or punish them, It could cause the behavior to worsen.
- Helps the child to involve in the breaking of habit. Ask the child what he thinks about this or what he can do to stop this.
- Distract them from the habit with the toys or tell them to play the games. Try getting the child involved in their interesting activities.
- Rewarding good behavior is the best way to change. Praise and reward the children, when they do not suck their thumb.
- If the above ideas don’t work then you can use a cover of the thumb with a plastic strip or use a thumb guard but before using this method you should explain this to the child because It can afraid or tense them.
WHEN TO SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP
Most habits do not require professional help. But if the habit affects your child’s functions physically or socially and you tried all possible techniques to change the habit even after it affects physically and emotionally. These conditions show consult your pediatrician. In the thumb sucking habit, If a child sucks his thumb frequently without any obvious reason around the age of 6 years then consult your doctor for a check-up.
HABITS ARE LIKE ROADS- GOOD AND BAD SO, CHOOSE THEM WISELY
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