So we have tried just about everything to get my daughter, who is almost for years old, to stop sucking her thumb.
Some of the things we have tried:
• “Only suck your thumb when it is dark outside, not sunny outside.” Well this one worked for about 3-4 works and then she was back to all day thumb sucking.
• I have put nail polish remover all over her thumb because I think that it tastes nasty. She did not even flinch the first time and sucked it anyway. I still tried another 3-4 times and nothing, she still sucked it.
• I have painted her fingernails with a fast dry nail polish right before bed. One night she did not suck her thumb, the first night, and I though “YES” this will work. Well it only worked one time, gggrrr….
• We have also said “only babies suck their thumbs.” She did not care and said she could be a baby while sucking her thumb.
So this is my NEW attempt and it has worked for 3 days and 2 nights so far. What I did:
• I got 2 colors of paper, yellow and pink. I made a paper chain of 8 yellow pieces on the bottom and 1 pink piece on the top (pink is one of her favorite colors). I have hung this chain in plain view so she sees it all day long. Every morning that she wakes up and successfully DID NOT suck her thumb the day or night before she gets to pull off one of the yellow links. When she gets to the pink link then she gets rewarded with a trip to Build a Bear and gets to build whichever bear she wants. She has never had a chance to build a bear and has always wanted to so now we will see if this works. So far so good, she is very excited and is doing a really good job not sucking her thumb so far.
