How do i stop my children from sucking their thumb

Thumb-sucking is normal in babies and young children, according to WebMD. Most babies and toddlers suck their thumbs. Babies have a natural urge to suck. This urge usually decreases after the age of 6 months. To many, sometimes thumb - sucking is a coping strategy. Accirding to WebMD, thumb-sucking can become a habit in babies and young children who use it to comfort themselves when they feel hungry, afraid, restless, quiet, sleepy, or bored. according to a report published in Pediatrics, children who sucked and bit their nails were far less likely to develop sensitivities to common allergens compared to children with neither habit. Thumb-sucking is an appropriate and useful behavior for very young children, as it allows them to comfort and entertain themselves, says Linda Goldstein, MD, a Washington pediatrician. Some view thumb - sucking as a bad habit and according to some pyschologists, bad habibs such as thumb sucking can be annoying to parents, but the habit must be dealt with, employing patient and love. Most experts agree that a thumb-sucker younger than 5 shouldn't be pressured to stop. Even when the habit lingers past infancy, thumb-sucking is rarely something to be concerned about. It doesn't indicate that a child has emotional problems or that he will still be sucking his finger when he's a teenager," says Sabine Hack, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine. Experts said that prolonged thumb-sucking may cause the teeth to become improperly aligned (malocclusion) or push the teeth outward, however they recommend ignoring thumb-sucking in a child who is preschool age or younger. Dr. Mefoh Philips, a pyschologist at universty of Nigeris Nsukka, pointed out that most times these behaviours are just phasis not requiring any serious medical attention. He added that children eventually outgrow them, however managing them can be very difficult. "If you need a change in their habit, first of all you need to understand why your children are doing that," he said. According to him, bad habits would only turn permanent after being repeated on daily basis. According to Jerome Hines, the only proper way to eliminate bad habits is to replace them with good ones. Dr. Valentine added that to substitute the bad habit, the child must pick some thing that is likewise reinforcing and repeats it enough for it to become a habit. He advised parents to use a natural and logical consequences for the problematic behavior. Also Mrs. Nneka Ebele, said that if parents desire to break bad habits in their children, they should start by focusing on one or two of th bothersome and dangerous ones. Sources: Vanguard health WebMD