Question
My 7 year old son has sucked his thumb forever. And, this is not just sucking when tired or in bed or when riding in the car or reading or watching a movie. It has always been constant. When he was younger, it got in the way of his playing as he wouldn't take it out to play with a toy or pick something up. Within the past year, he has switched to sucking his pointer finger. Just in the past few months, it has developed into a worse habit where he puts his left pointer finger in his mouth and his right hand down the back of his pants. This is driving us CRAZY!!! I read your response to a thumb sucker question that "if you catch him sucking his thumb outside his room or the bathroom, you will confine him to the bathroom for one hour and he can suck all he wants during that time." We can totally do that at home. I will be on it. I will do it. But, what do we do about school? He is constantly doing it there and the hand down the pants thing is just gross. His teacher tells him to take them out and go wash his hands any time she sees it, but obviously this does not stop the problem. He is gone for school from 8:00-3:45 so it seems like a lot of time lost to fix this!
