Effects Of Thumb-sucking On Children

Why do babies Thumb suck?

Many young children have the habit of thumb sucking. There are accounts saying that even babies that are still in their mother's womb are already starting this kind of behavior that are witnessed in ultrasound photos.

According to Live Strong, a research from Palo Alto Medical Foundation for Health Care, Research and Education explained that thumb sucking is normal and considered as a soothing and therapeutic act for babies. Babies are thumb-sucking because of several reasons such as boredom, tiredness, or hunger.

Negative effects:

This behavior usually lasts until children reach 3-5 years of age and those children who continue to thumb-suck are developing dental growth problems. As posted by Baby Center, babies who have prolonged thumb sucking habit are still safe until they reach the age of 6 where they start to grow permanent teeth.

-Dental growth problems

As explained by Dentistry IQ, those children who are habitually thumb sucking even beyond toddler years can develop an uneven alignment of teeth or a dental open bite.  This kind of dental problem can be treated by a dentist or an orthodontist and may take a long term of treatment.

-Speech problems

Children may also have speech problems because of abnormal teeth growth. Pronunciation of words are affected since there are words with certain sound distortions can't be executed properly by the tongue. According to SpeechPathology.com, long term of thumb sucking may result to myofunctional conditions wherein some muscles in front of the teeth and surrounding the lips may not be so active.

What you can do to stop children from thumb-sucking.

1. Try to make your child busy with some toys where he can use his both hands to avoid thumb-sucking.

2. Explain to your child why they have to stop. Don't scold them. Every time he stops, praise him.

3. Try to prohibit your child from sucking their thumb as early as possible because the older they get, the harder to treat the thumb-sucking habit.