What to do if your baby sucks his fingers

Thumb sucking is a common problem among children. When a young child sucks his fingers, it shows that he is attached to breast milk. In life, many people are worried about the baby's health, and sometimes the baby will suck his fingers. Some parents think that this is a common phenomenon and there is no need to worry about this problem. In fact, this idea is wrong. Therefore, we need to understand how to deal with babies who are more than two months old sucking their fingers. So what should we do if our baby sucks his thumbs after two months old? Let’s see how authoritative experts answer this question based on their years of clinical experience.

Physical aspects: such as lack of trace elements such as zinc and iron in the body.

Psychological aspect: Thumb sucking is an external manifestation of psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety, and compulsion.

Methods/Steps

1. The best way is to understand whether the children’s needs are met. In addition to meeting children's physiological needs (such as hunger, thirst, cold, heat, and sleep), we should enrich children's lives, give them some interesting toys, and give them more opportunities to play. We should also provide favorable conditions to allow children to participate in more outdoor activities and play with their friends, so that their lives can be fulfilling and lively. Distract attention from inherent habits, maintain a happy and lively mood, and give children psychological satisfaction.

2. Parents should correct children's finger sucking behavior patiently and calmly. For this type of children, it is important to avoid using simple and rough educational methods. Do not laugh at, threaten, beat, scold, or use coercive methods such as tying their arms or wearing cots. Because doing so is not only ineffective, but will also make children feel painful, depressed, emotionally nervous and uneasy, and even cause inferiority complex and loneliness. And given the opportunity, the child will want to suck his fingers more, making the bad behavior of sucking fingers stubborn.

3. Develop good hygiene habits from an early age. Do not let children suck their fingers for fun. Patiently warn them that sucking fingers is unhygienic. It will not only cause swelling and pain in the fingers, affect the development of the sacrum and deform the teeth, but also easily bring a lot of dirt into the mouth, causing digestive system diseases and other infectious diseases.

4. For children who have developed the unhygienic habit of sucking their fingers, the reasons for this bad habit should be found out. If it is due to improper feeding methods, the wrong feeding methods should be corrected first to overcome the bad feeding habits. Children should be taught to develop regular eating habits, eat at regular times and in regular amounts, and know when to eat when hungry or full.

5. Whenever a child sucks his fingers, you should look at the child with a stern look and say in a firm tone: "No!" At the same time, distract the child. When the finger-sucking behavior decreases, you should encourage and praise him in time, and explain to the child that as long as he can reduce and control this behavior, he will be rewarded. This kind of "positive reinforcement" treatment can have obvious results.

Precautions

There is a method that your parents may have tried when you were a child, which is to smear various substances that may cause disgust to you on your fingers, but it is best not to experiment on your children because you are not sure what effect the ingredients will have on them. You can let your child choose his favorite cloth band to wrap his fingers, and joke that his little hands are shy. This way, you create a natural obstacle for him.

The above content is a detailed introduction to "What to do if your baby sucks his fingers after more than two months old". I believe you have already understood the basic situation. If babies who like to suck their thumbs are not stopped in time, this phenomenon will only endanger the child's health and make the family worried. Therefore, for the sake of health and family peace of mind, babies who like to suck their thumbs need our timely attention.