Two year old is sucking their thumb to fall asleep

Hi!  I wondered what you typically advise parents to do when their two year old is sucking their thumb to fall asleep.  I evaluated a two year old girl today who already has overjet and an anterior open bite with a high palate due to her thumb sucking.  Would you use your program with a child this young?  Can you give me some guidance?   Thanks!  

Hi, Let me respond to your email about the two year old and what I’ve found.  I don’t believe the usual UTT kit program would work with a child that age.  If she’s almost three, you might have a chance if she is at a really high level cognitively, but I’d be hesitant.  I have seen through the years that it is easier to eliminate the habit at an age much younger than two years old; otherwise, the window of opportunity is lost and we have to wait until the child is older. Sad, but true.  Once the habit is firmly established for 2 years, it is hard to do anything about it until the child can make that decision for herself/himself based on information we can show them and reason with them about the habit. Better not to have any type of battles between parent and child so as to maximize the chance for success in a year or so from now…to present the program in a positive way.  I wish I had more to offer here, but sometimes there is nothing to do but wait, in my opinion. Hope this eases your mind. Keep in touch, Sandra 

Thanks!  It was exactly as I was thinking.  The only other thought I had was to see if mom could eliminate the associated item that she always has when she sucks without too much trauma to the child and ‘see what happens’.  I am glad that I asked for your help!  You are always a wealth of knowledge.  I really appreciate your help on these sticky matters that I seem to run in to. Take care and enjoy teaching in Anchorage!!!

You didn’t mention that there was another item associated with the sucking habit.  Aha!  That might be a way to approach it sooner.  Do you recall the method we went over to eliminate a pacifier habit?  You would follow the same steps.  If you don’t remember it, let me know and I’ll outline it for you. Maybe we didn’t get to it in your class.  We had sooo much going on, and patients to see, etc. Sandra