Stop Sucking your Thumb, Stop Sucking your Fingers (Unlock Your Life) Audio CD – Audiobook, 1 July 2011

Thinking about how to help our 5 year old stop sucking her fingers was a bit like revving ourselves up for potty training. We played this CD every night after lights out, lying with our daughter on her bed and holding her hand until she drifted off to sleep with the CD still playing... It is a support for parents as well as the child, and the words are kind, not judgmental or derogatory about the habit. It helps to provide a new framework in which to form new habits. We didn't want to traumatise our daughter, or pull away her literal comfort blanket, but she knew and we knew she'd be better off without her fingers constantly in her mouth. We tried the gently, gently approach of suggesting she only sucked her fingers at bedtime - but then there are car journeys, sitting in front of the TV, on the computer at school, sitting on the carpet... We decided after 18 mths of trying to do it gradually that this was a fairly addictive habit. We ended up with a 4 pronged approach: this CD, a t-guard finger guard (pricey but worth it), a book to read together and a reward system (get your child to choose weekly rewards that they really want - the tguard includes a small daily reward chart with stars). The t-guard system reckons on 30 days to crack the habit - we did it in 15 but continued with the support for the 30 days. Like potty training I strongly suggest you choose the first 7 days in the school holidays when you can provide lots of love, support and distraction.

I bought this for my 7 year old who had managed to stop sucking her thumb during the day but could not conquer falling asleep without it. She cried when she first listened to this with relief as it made her thumb tingle and she felt she finally had the confidence to stop. She only listened to this a few times but along with a total 6 week ban involving putting plasters on it worked. She is so proud of herself. I'm sure it was due to putting the plasters on rather than the cd but my daughter would beg to differ. Wish i'd done it years ago! Now going to tackle my 5 year old.

Astonished that this worked! My 6year old daughter wasn't convinced about giving the thumb up and I didn't want to force the issue. She listened to this cd half a dozen times at bed time and with this and a star chart for encouragement she cracked it!

I bought the book for my 3 years old daughter trying to figure out ways to help her stop sucking her thumb but the book/audie was more for adult to help relaxing and sleeping it was waste of my time and money