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From: christensen@apollo.uucp (Wendy Christensen)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: thumb-sucking
Message-ID: <280d6565.a51@apollo.uucp>
Date: Wed, 31-Jul-85 15:07:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: apollo.280d6565.a51
Posted: Wed Jul 31 15:07:55 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 2-Aug-85 22:04:41 EDT
Organization: Apollo Computer, Chelmsford, Mass.
Lines: 21

G. Bogatko writes:

> 	I am looking for information on how to stop a 6 year old from
> sucking her thumb. She only sucks it in the daytime, but during that daytime
> it is constant.  She would rather suck her thumb than anything else.
> 	This is really starting to piss me off.
> 	She has plenty of friends, does well in school, has lots of outside
> things to do, but......in the end she would rather suck her thumb.

Leave her alone. She is not doing herself any harm, and trying to force her
to stop may well do her harm. You say she is well-adjusted, has friends,
does well in school, etc. It seems the only disadvantage of her behavior
is that is "pisses you off." This is insufficient condition for forcing her
to stop something she obviously needs and enjoys. I know of a case of a girl
who continued to suck her thumb, day and night, until she was eighteen
years old, when she stopped completely and spontaneously. No ill effects,
physical or emotional, ever appeared. No one ever made a big deal of
it. I think you are more concerned with appearances than with the well-being
of the six-year-old in question.

w. christensen