Two year sucking habit

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 K, 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 cognitively really high level, but I’d be hesitant.  Unfortunately, I have seen through the years that it is easier to eliminate the habit at an age much younger than two years old or 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 not to reduce the chances for an opportunity 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, K. 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 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. Sandra

 I’ll use the word, pacifier, but fill in blankie or whatever is being used by the baby. When is it used, only a bedtime?  I’ll  make assumptions and you change it around as needed.

1. Day One, when mother decides to  start:  First of all, if there is more than one pacifier/blankie, slowly eliminate all but one over a short period of a few days, hopefully without the child even realizing it.  OK, you’ve      whittled it down to one.
2. Before bed, the pacifier isn’t in its usual location and mom wait for the child to remark about that fact.   Mom doesn’t make a big deal, but takes a few seconds with the child to “look” for it and lo and behold!  It is “found”  within 30 seconds or so; it must be “found” before the child is      strongly protesting…a whine or so is OK. (thus, the mom has to be sure to have hidden it nearby beforehand, of course)
3. Again, no big deal.  Mom puts it into the bed and doesn’t remark much at all.Next day, same thing, but maybe for 45 seconds or a minute.  The mom must time it so it is found right before the child is miserable.  Same action of putting it where it belongs and saying goodnight, etc.
4. This pattern usually continues for over a week or so, slowly increasing the time so that the child falls asleep before it is found……thus, no frustration, the parent is the helper, no one is to blame, etc.

If the parent has the wherewithall to do this correctly, it should work fine.  Whether or not the child will stop the habit if the item is gone, well, we will have to see…but I think there is a fighting chance. San