Toddlers have this habit of keeping their thumb in to their mouth and they tend to suck it often whenever their hand is free and they are not engaged in any activity. Mostly in the early ages of life precisely 2- 3 years kids often tend to suck their thumb and sit like that for hours and hours. The issue does not arise at this age but the problem starts to arise when the same habit gets carried over to an age of 6- 7 years. When a kid keeps on sucking the thumb for 6 to 7 years the habit then turns in to a curse because it starts showing its adverse effects when the permanent teeth starts to grow. The main disadvantages of the extended life of thumb sucking or the side effects of thumb sucking are listed as follows-

  • Wrong alignment of teeth structure- when a kid does not let go the habit of sucking thumb all the time, the permanent teeth starts to grow randomly and hence the alignment is not proper. This results in having bad teeth structure that in future takes a bad shape and makes the face look ugly.
  • Thickness of lips- the upper lips tends to get thickened with this continuous thumb sucking. The lower lips builds up on its own to its regular size but the upper lips gets thicker with time which results in problems like uneven verbal communication, stammering etc.
  • Upper lips, as it thickens up, looks bad and it gains a little height as well. The two lips refuses to touch each other which make the lip look wider and the teeth tends to peep out of the lips.

Sucking thumb after a certain age must be treated as a bad habit and parents must take measures to make the kid learn not to do so. In case the kids do not follow instructions or refuses to listen to the same one must consult child doctors and specialist as they provide various remedies for the same. Mostly in ancient days people use to follow rituals like putting some spicy power over the thumb so that it irritates the lips and tongue as the kid starts to suck it and gradually the habit goes away but then not everyone can follow the same thing. Hence consulting the doctors can be a proper way of making the kids aware of the side effects of thumb sucking and also making them leave the habit as soon as possible.

It is hard to make the kids understand logical things at such an early age but then parents can take out other ways of conveying their thoughts and feelings to the kids. Also, other kids starts to make fun out of such kids and then they can get mentally upset about meeting people or even going to the school because of this lame habit. Hence, it is important to let this habit go before it is too late for recovery.