I am proud to say that we officially do NOT have any more thumb/finger suckers in our house! I thought the day would never come! But, it didn’t come without a bit of creativity and ingenuity.
So, as I have mentioned in previous posts, the thumb-guards
and finger-guards
worke{one of my 2 year olds} w a tough one! He would suck whatever finger was not in the guard. I joking said that I needed a finger guard for his whole hand…well, that is what I did…
I used knit gloves. {I figured the taste of yarn would not be to pleasing.} I used ribbon and sewed two loops onto the wristband of each of glove…one loop on each side. Then I used the leftover bands/bracelets that came with my guards and viola…no more access to suck any of his fingers, but it still allowed him to freely move his fingers. 
So, before you start saying what a bad mom I am, let me tell ya, I was desperate…and this WORKED!
Initially TJ was excited about putting on his gloves, that is until he realized he couldn’t suck his fingers with them on. The excitement rubbed off on JI and he wanted to wear gloves too. So, I made about 10 pair of gloves. (Since I wash at least one load of clothes a day, I knew that I could toss them in each day.) Initially, they wore them all the time, except for meals. {Yes, we did this in late winter, early spring…before it was too hot to walk around wearing gloves.} But, we gradually moved to just wearing them during naptime and bedtime and finally we took them off for good and there has not been any finger sucking since {and it has been over a month since we took off the gloves}!!!!! I think the whole process with the gloves actually took us a little less than a month.
Oh, almost forgot to mention that once we ran out of the bands that were leftover from our guards, we purchasedadhesive bands similar to these
and they worked up fine! (At that point the little boys were not even trying to take the bands off.)
Mama Jenn
Oh my goodness! That sounds painful! Glad he was able to grow out of it!
Traci Sanford
My oldest nephew(now almost 14) used to suck his thumb so bad it would bleed and he would just keep sucking on it. We tried everything and nothing worked. He finally grew out of it but even now you can occasionally catch him with his thumb in his mouth when he’s sleeping. Wish we had thought of this when he was younger.
Mama Jenn
Glad to know I’m not the only mama who “taught” their kids to suck their thumbs!! 😉
Jennifer Story
My daughter was a thumb-sucker from birth and we finally just broke it a few months ago. She’s 7 1/2! The orthodontist said he could sell us a $1500 retainer to help break the habit but it may not work. Ugh! His assistant told us though that we could wrap her arm with an ACE bandage and tongue depressor at night to keep her arm straight. She actually broke a single tongue depressor. We had to wrap 2 of them in there. Then as she had success, we slowly backed her down to 1, then just the bandage, then to an old sock on her elbow. It was 2 months of work but it finally worked and her teeth are straightening out and coming together in the front. We’re so thankful!
Dvanow
Thanks for resending this post today. I have an almost 7 year old that still sucks his thumb and I need to put an end to it. I. too, got my kids to suck their fingers for the same reason you did. It was easy to get my daughter to stop. not so for my son. Now I am desperate.
TOLIVER FAMILY
Yay! Ok…found this post! Congrats. 🙂
Mama Jenn
Muslim Mama~I would definitely try the gloves first! The were VERY easy to make! The only thing is that a 6 year old may be wise enough to figure out how to get the bands/bracelets off. My boys are only 2.
As for the intelligence, my daughter {the only one who didn’t suck any of her fingers} seems to be the brightest of all my kids so far…but then again, she is my only girl as well… 🙂
Muslim Mama
My DD who is now six and has lost her two front milk teeth- and still sucks her two fingers (literally since the moment she was born- and i was being stiched up TMI!) We were planning on purchasing the expensive finger guard from the states to be sent to london- because I am so fed with the whole finger issue as she has her perm’ teeth coming through soon. But Im going to try the glove idea instead. BTW a friend told me chn who suck their fingers are highly intelligent- any ideas on that?!
Julie Bagamary
Very clever and affordable idea!