Thumb and pacifier sucking is harmful to dental health

Today we have another article about the innate sucking reflex of newborns. I have already written quite a lot of material on this topic. Therefore, if anyone is interested, you can read, I provide links:

Why does a child put his hands in his mouth?
How to teach a child to use a pacifier;
How to wean a child off a pacifier.

Today we will look at a specific case when children are 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. They've been sucking their fingers for months. For some reason, many parents make a big deal out of this little thing, although there is nothing terrible here, and then you will understand why.

I would also understand if we were talking about older children; it looks quite strange, of course, when a child, already at school, sucks his thumb. However, our article today is specifically about infants. It is one-month-old babies who suck their fingers most actively.

Causes

You've probably already read a lot of information on the Internet on sites like mine. They also write about reasons such as lack of maternal warmth and psychological problems in infants that cause them to put their fingers in their mouths. Yes, I do not argue with all these statements, perhaps in some cases they are the causes of thumb sucking in newborns, but such cases are rare.

Negative effects of thumb sucking

Parents have mixed opinions about this problem. Some believe that this is a bad habit and must be fought.

Others believe that there is nothing wrong with this, and the child is able to stop sucking his hands on his own.

Many dentists, pediatricians and speech therapists completely agree with the first opinion. They believe that otherwise it could lead to the following problems:

Infection. Doctors believe that if a baby sucks his fingers, this can lead to negative consequences, because an infection can get into his mouth, which will cause the development of dysbiosis. The main signs of this disease are constipation, colic, diarrhea and other dysfunctions. In this case, it will be necessary to use medications for treatment.
Deformation of teeth. When children suck their fingers, it can contribute to improper jaw development and tooth growth.
Dehydration. When a child sucks his fingers, salivation increases significantly. As a result, the baby loses fluid and his body may be susceptible to dehydration. It may also irritate the delicate skin of the cheeks and neck.
Deformation of nails. If your baby sucks on a pen, dangerous bacteria can get under the nail plates, causing fungus. The development of the nail plates may also be impaired, and abrasions and calluses may appear on the skin.

Consequences

But there are no particular consequences, just a couple of negative points:

It can become a habit. If you don't take care of your child and don't pay attention to the fact that he constantly sucks his fingers, then it can become a healthy habit. Even at an older age, the baby will suck his fingers when he is thinking about something, when he is upset, and when something is not working out.
Dirty fingers in the mouth are a source of germs. You probably won’t have time to keep an eye on your baby so that his fingers are always perfectly clean. In this connection, diseases of the oral cavity can form as a result of an infection that the baby brought with his own hands.
Too much saliva is produced when thumb sucking. In this regard, the child develops irritation around the mouth, plus he has to stock up on a certain amount of bibs.

We will not take into account horror stories about crooked fingers and teeth, because personally I consider them just horror stories.

Self-healing of teeth relationships in children

In 2014, scientists from Orlando decided to make a sensational statement; an article was published about the absence of the influence of bad habits on the formation of bite. The article stated that even if children suck their thumbs, and pathologies in the relationship of baby teeth are formed in children, during the period of mixed dentition and/or in permanent dentition, they can be corrected on their own. But only under certain conditions.

The idea is not new for dentists; indeed, self-healing of the bite takes place in orthodontics. The children's body itself tries to correct all mistakes and optimize its work. Moreover, if the cause of malocclusion, namely a bad habit, is eliminated, when permanent teeth erupt, the bite can be normal, physiological.

Hemorrhoids kill the patient in 79% of cases

It is believed that it was this idea and this research that formed the basis of the statement made by scientists from Sweden.

How to wean

First, think about whether it’s worth doing. If the baby sucks its thumb occasionally, then you should not pay attention at all. If such cases are repeated quite often, then it’s worth delving into the essence of the problem and finding out the reason. Maybe you are not feeding your baby enough, or maybe he has some pain. Our son gradually sucked both the pacifier and his fingers and was breastfed and nothing bad happened to him.

A couple of useful tips

You should not use any violent actions or remove a child’s finger with your own hands without offering anything in return. This will only get you crying from the child. Also not necessary:

Smear your fingers with something;
Raise your voice at the baby;
Constantly putting something on the child’s hands, for example, scratches;
Restrict the baby's movements so that he cannot reach his face with his hands.

Nobody forbids you to replace your baby's finger with a pacifier. After all, pacifiers were invented to satisfy the baby's sucking reflex. I listed all the positive and negative aspects of sucking a pacifier in the article, the link to which I gave at the very beginning. Therefore, I will not repeat myself.
Don't let your baby go hungry. Apply it to your chest more often. Try to start feeding on demand rather than on a schedule.
As soon as you see that the child has put his finger in his mouth, then immediately try to find him something else to do. Give your child rattles or a ball with pimples to develop finger motor skills.
If your baby puts his finger in his mouth because something hurts, then try to find out the reason. When there is pain in the tummy, children tighten their legs. If it is teething, the gums become red and swollen, the child produces a lot of saliva, and begins to cough slightly.
If it is still teething, then try to buy and give the child a teether. This is a special chew filled with water specifically so that it can be cooled. Cold relieves pain. This will calm the baby down a little, he will stop being nervous and putting everything in his mouth.

And that’s all, friends, we have found out that a month-old or even six-month-old child who sucks his fingers is not so scary.

4 year old child sucks thumb

I recently received a letter with a question in the mail. The problem raised is actually a common one; many parents are looking for an answer in a similar situation. So I decided to bring it up on the blog.

Hello Tatiana.

My daughter (born in 2008) has had the habit of thumb sucking since birth; she has not accepted any pacifiers. Now that we are already 5 years old, the problem, unfortunately, remains on the agenda. Persuasion, arguments, and distracting maneuvers do not work at all. Only now everything has become more complicated due to crooked teeth.

It should be noted that we turned to different specialists with our problem, from child psychologists to dentists. We used various soothing herbs for bathing, tablets, etc., bought trainers to correct the bite - all to no avail. I am sure that our problem is more of a psychological nature, due to the fact that my daughter sucks her thumb at the moment of calming down: watching TV; at night before bedtime; when she cries, etc. Catherine.

Ekaterina, hello.

If the child does not have any neurological disorders (consultation with a pediatric neurologist or psychotherapist), this problem can be solved by behavioral therapy not only for the girl herself, but also for other family members.

So, how to stop thumb sucking ?

Most often, the habit of sucking persists only because the child has no alternative ways to relieve stress, get peace of mind, and the family constantly talks about weaning off sucking. Naturally, my daughter resists and continues to suck her thumb .

Try to impartially assess the psychological climate of the family . How comfortable does your daughter feel? Isn't she too often left alone with her toys/cartoons, even if there are other family members at home? Do you often play with her and devote quality time (in the sense that while playing with her, you are not distracted by household chores)?

Similarly, you need to assess whether the child is comfortable in the nursery. kindergarten, if he attends it.

Behavioral therapy consists of unconditional acceptance of the child as he is (even with this bad habit) and art therapy. This means that you exclude any censure, indignation, retaliation, do not shame or be sarcastic. Don't scare us with dire consequences. Because, as you have already seen, this does not work.

Try to find something she could be interested in, using her hands as much as possible : this is drawing in various ways (from watercolor to crayons and charcoal), modeling with clay, soft plasticine of unusual colors. Introduce her to knitting and embroidery, beading, etc.

Additionally, you need to include aquatherapy (various games with water), sand therapy . There is a lot of literature on this topic in bookstores, be sure to go.

Reduce watching cartoons to a minimum (no more than 10 minutes per day).

When your daughter sees that you and other family members have stopped reminding her to stop thumb sucking, you can include elements of encouragement : on a special Whatman paper, draw the days of the week by time of day (morning, afternoon, evening) and stick on funny faces with outstretched fingers (if she managed , for example, in the morning until lunch to refrain from sucking) and sad faces with a finger in the mouth (if it failed and she sucked). Choose the appropriate colors: cheerful - with her favorite color from bright, saturated tones and sad - with her unfavorite color (preferably dark, for example, black, dark blue, dark purple).

And at the end of each day, count which faces she collected the most. If it's fun - a small but welcome prize (a sticker on your favorite theme, a jumper, a small buildable toy, etc.). If they are sad, we don’t give anything accordingly.

You can also focus on appearance : tell your daughter that since she is a girl, her fingers want to be beautiful (as a visual example, you can paint her nails with a gentle varnish and make a light design), and if they get into her mouth, all the beauty will be erased .

Tell her more often how smart she is, she herself decided that she can suck, but she can also decide for herself when to quit. Emphasize her independence and express confidence that your daughter will definitely cope with this.

I repeat once again, if the daughter experiences discomfort from the thought that she needs to stop sucking, she will repeat it again and again. And when she feels a desire to quit (in order to achieve a prize, for example, or to be beautiful, or something else, i.e. she sees a pleasant prospect for herself), she herself will put her efforts into this.

And you can already help her with this.

At night, put a toy in her hands that will sleep with her and that she can bite a little. It should fit in the handle. If in a dream you automatically put your finger in your mouth, try to remove your finger very carefully, so as not to wake it up. If it doesn't work, we leave it. The above therapies throughout the day plus rewards should work on a subconscious level.

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Moms and dads, write in the comments if your children had a similar problem at this age and how they dealt with it?

What else to read:

“Mine” and “someone else’s” toy

Comprehensive written consultation with psychologist Tatyana Egorova

Children's fears - how to help a child?