How do you stop a 2yr old sucking their thumb?

a swift clip around the back of the head?

Brake the thumb and say if they try doing it again you will do the same thing!

That tell the little sh!t

Despite the “Expert” opinions here I wouldn’t worry. How many adult thumb suckers do you see?
2 years old is nothing, perfectly natural. Shows he can comfort himself (ie look out for himself later in life maybe?)

All that overbite sh1te is a crock IMO, people with one would have developed that way anyway. It would take 24hr constant thumb-sucking for years to influence the developmement of the pallette. (see neck-stretching, lip-stretching, foot binding etc. for a reference)

I will stress I am no expert but did do some study on the burmese neck-stretchers and other body decoration/deformation during my degree. (jewellery, so like I said -no expert :?)
Let the boy develop naturally

Yeah Smee, stop listening to dentists about palate deformation.

Listen to billyboulders – he read some stuff about neck-stretchers, that’ll be a lot more relevant.

Funkynic – I accidentaly closed a door (hinge side) on my 1yr old (at the time) daughters fingers, thought she was going to lose some, after the most traumatising drive ever to A&E it turned out even though the door was completely closed on them there weren’t even any broken bones, still can’t work out that one lots of bruising and inflamation but she never sucked her thumb again (would have thought she would have just started sucking the other one).
Sorry, Smee, not a lot of help unless you are mental enough to try and copy my tale, just wanted to share.
What would Glupton do? 😛

GLupton – would probably irritate him constantly until he stopped then irritate him some more just to make sure. Hmmm – might be worth a go.

😀 I did say no expert, just my opinion

Struwwelpeter is your friend…

Poor little suck-a-thumb!

The Germans are aces at massively violent and cruel children’s stories, just look at the Grimms…

A familiar tactic Smee 🙂

Yeah, you seem to like that one. 😀

My brother is 22 and still sucks his thumb on occasion. No dental probs that i know of.

Give him a dummy to suck on instead,then when he’s used to it & prefers the dummy to his thumb wean him off that too….

I used to lie on my front with a book on on my pillow and prop my head up by sucking my thumb. As I said earlier, I did this til I was 15. I have a minor overbite, a slightly arched pallete and a rather bent thumb. None of which bother me.

I was utterly miserable the entire time my parents tried to stop me thumb sucking. I reckon you shouldn’t worry. Also as someone said, you don’t see many adult thumb suckers, most grow out of it far earlier than I did. He’s only 2.

I was utterly miserable the entire time my parents tried to stop me thumb sucking.

Crikey, can’t imagine ever finding thumb sucking so interesting that having to stop it was so depressing. I’d be concerned that my kids had other mental “needs” or lackings if thumb sucking were such a source of reassurance!

You have a point Coffeeking, I was a particularly sensitive child and one of my main sources of ‘self soothing’ was being removed. It sticks in my memory as quite a traumatic time.

Time will resolve the issue, I really wouldnt worry. My two had dummies rather than thumbs (ok they’ve got thumbs too alright) which caused a slight overbite too. They were both happy to stop the dummies at 4 or 5 years (only used at night time after about 2 years) with a bit of bribery.

Our dentist was only too happy to refer both of them to an orthodontist at about 8 or 10 years anyway to re-shape things. The younger one got it on the NHS, the older one cost us 2 grand. Still never worked that one out!

Just about every one of their friends has had braces as some point, I think its standard practice these days.

jojo – As you say, all kids are different, it’s hard to strike a balance between tough love and over-reaction.

I’d like braces now, but apparently they wont work in adulthood and you’re likely to make your teeth permanently loose?!