One Approach to Breaking Child’s Thumb-Sucking Habit

When children suck their thumbs past toddlerhood, parents may get anxious about the habit. But when thumb-sucking is combined with the need for a security blanket-- a la Linus of Peanuts’ comic strip fame--parents may really crawl up the wall over this double “addiction.”

Now, a Philadelphia researcher claims that once they lick thumb-sucking, children often give up blankets and other attachment objects.

“If you eliminate one, the other isn’t quite as interesting,” says Patrick C. Friman, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia. He compares the two habits, which often go hand in hand, to kissing without hugging or a pitcher’s windup sans throw.

His findings were recently published in the American Journal of Diseases of Children.

Friman recruited eight thumb-sucking kids ages 5 to 12. As a reminder not to suck their thumbs, parents painted a yucky-tasting “treatment” on little thumbs in the morning, evening and each time a child forgot.

Parents also administered a motivational system. Children younger than 7 who made it through the day without sucking their thumbs drew from a grab-bag a slip of paper that listed a small reward such as a nutritious treat or special privilege. Older children received toys.

All eight children quit thumb-sucking, and seven also gave up their attachment to objects, including blankets, toys, their own hair and a satin cloth. After three weeks, the morning and evening treatments were phased out; the motivational system was in effect for an average of 45 days.

Based on his clinical experience and the study, Friman tells parents to leave thumb-sucking children alone if they’re younger than 5 or if the habit seems to fulfill an important need, such as helping sick or injured children to soothe themselves.

Consulting with a pediatrician before persuading a child to give up the habit is also wise, he added.

A local child psychiatrist agrees that not all thumb-sucking children should be treated. “Thumb-sucking can be a protective element for fear or anxiety,” says Mercedes Navarro of Miller Children’s Hospital of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. “And I’m pleased to see that Friman would not treat a child younger than age 5.”

Navarro speculates that the thumb-suckers in Friman’s study may have quit because of increased parental attention. Friman disagrees. He reasons that the thumb-sucking had become, for those ready to give it up with a little prodding, an empty habit.

In a related study, Friman concludes that children who abandon their thumbs before starting school may get along better socially. He showed first-graders slides of children sucking their thumbs and then, weeks later, the same children not sucking their thumbs. Viewers were less likely to choose thumb-suckers as seatmates.