The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms

Welcome this week’s guest blogger Andrea Van Ness, mompreneur and founder of Thumbuddy To Love™

Teeth malformations:
According to the American Dental Association, prolonged thumb-sucking can cause a child to develop dental problems. Thumb-sucking can cause a child’s teeth to become improperly aligned (malocclusion) or push the teeth outward, sometimes malforming the roof (upper palate) of the mouth. Malocclusion usually corrects itself when the child stops thumb-sucking. But the longer thumb-sucking continues, the more likely it is that orthodontic treatment will be needed to correct any resulting dental problems.

Although thumb sucking is a normal habit in infants, it causes serious teeth problems if it continues long after the eruption of permanent teeth. The problem gets more serious if it continues after the age of four or five.

Speech problems and other problems:
A child may also develop speech problems, including mispronouncing Ts and Ds, lisping, and thrusting out the tongue when talking.

Other undesirable effects can include problems with jaw movements, narrowing of the cheek bones due to the contractions of the cheek muscles, ulcerations beneath the tongue, and root resorption. More commonly, the thumb may develop calluses or an irritant eczema, and the digit itself may become deformed.

Germs spreading:
Another reason you want your child to break the thumb sucking habit sooner than later is that is easy to spread germs on a wet thumb or finger. With the onset of flu season and other bacteria living in our world, it is good to keep hands washed and dry. Thumb sucking can easily spread germs from counters and floors or any surface the child has touched with their thumb/finger and then put to their mouth.

Try and keep your child’s thumb as dry as possible so as to lessen the chances of infections or other bad bacteria. Talk to your child how germs are spread and how thumb sucking can spread germs. With the flu season approaching and swine flu getting lots of attention, stopping thumb sucking can be a good thing and may lessen the spread of germs through stopping the thumb sucking habit.

Social challenges:
According to Steven Parker, Barry S. Zuckerman, and Marilyn Augustyn who wrote Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics: A Handbook for Primary Care, “thumb sucking can contribute to impaired parental and peer relationships. It is often viewed as immature and socially undesirable. Parents and peers may criticize, tease, or punish a child for engaging in thumb sucking. These reactions may in turn, adversely affect a child’s self esteem.”

Treatment:
Usually, treatment can be done at home and includes parents setting rules and providing distractions. It may be helpful to limit the times and places that your child is allowed to suck his or her thumb and to put away blankets or other item your child associates with thumb-sucking. Offering praise and rewards for not thumb-sucking may also help your child break the habit.

Parents usually start to worry too early, about how to stop thumb sucking habit of their children. It is advised that you do not try to make a child to stop thumb sucking before the age of three (unless you notice a problem to teeth due to vigorous thumb sucking) because it might have the opposite results. Here are some tips:

• Keep the child’s hands occupied with a toy, puzzle or other activity.
• Carefully remove your child’s thumb from his or her mouth during sleep.  
• Give the example of his friends that have managed to stop thumb sucking.  
• Don’t put the child in a state of anxiety or fear. If the child has any emotional problems, or is under stress and needs comforting, you may need to resolve those issues first before your child can successfully stop thumb-sucking.  
• Talk about the ‘bad’ germs that are on our hands and how the child puts them in his or her mouth while thumb sucking.  
• Avoid punishing or shaming the child.  
• Reward the child for not thumb sucking for a progressively increasing time period.  
• Ask the advice of a pediatric dentist. He will explain to your kid what will happen to the teeth if the child does not stop sucking its thumb.
• Introduce Thumbuddy To Love® to your child

Thumbuddy To Love^® addresses all of the above issues:

1. Thumbuddy To Love keeps a child occupied.
2. Thumbuddy can be worn to bed so it encourages them not to suck.
3. Thumbuddy To Love teaches the importance of stopping thumb sucking and growing up to be a big girl or boy.
4. Thumbuddy To Love is a positive teaching tool for parents, teachers and children.
5. Thumbuddy To Love lessons the anxiety by making it fun to stop.
6. Thumbuddy To Love books give the example of friends and heroes who have stopped.
7. Thumbuddy To Love avoids shaming or punishing a child by not using thumb guards or thumb polish which has chemicals in it.
8. Thumbuddy To Love rewards a child with a success calendar in the back of the book and keeps them motivated and positive so that they can quit.
9. Thumbuddy To Love is recommended by Dentists and Pediatricians.
10. Thumbuddy To Love received the prestigious Mom’s Choice Award. You can order Thumbuddy To Love at thumbuddytolove.com or on Amazon.

Andrea Van Ness

Andrea Wulfing Van Ness founded Thumbuddy To Love™ in Boulder, Colorado because she noticed the lack of positive teaching tools to help stop thumb sucking without the use of thumb guards or awful tasting nail polish (Malava Stop) which is full of chemicals. She wanted to help kids with their thumb sucking problem before they have to get braces to save their teeth.

 

We have a Thumbuddy set to give away to one lucky reader. Your choice of Fireman Fred, Ballerina Sue or The Binky Fairy (for pacifier suckers) thumb puppet and illustrated story book with a success chart to help stop thumb sucking. To enter, simply leave a comment below telling us your thoughts on the Thumbuddies.

For bonus entries:

• Like The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms on facebook
• Like Thumbuddy to Love on facebook
• Follow ThumbuddyToLove on Twitter
• Retweet this giveaway : ‘ Help your child give up thumb sucking the positive way with @ThumbuddyToLove #giveaway via @RookieMommy http://wp.me/pC8a1-2Kq ‘

Please be sure to leave a separate comment below for each of your bonus entries.

• Giveaway is open to US and Canada
• Winner will be drawn at random
• Winner can choose one of the Thumbuddy crew: Fireman Fred, Ballerina Sue or The Binky Fairy
• Giveaway closes February 10th, 2012

Filed under: Parenting Tagged: | breaking thumb sucking habit, dental problems associated with thumb sucking, Family, Parenting, Repercussions of Thumb Sucking, thumb sucking, Thumbuddy giveaway, Thumbuddy to Love