Dr ThumbBaby Stop Thumb Sucking Guard (Small (12~36 Months))

My 14-month-old sucked his thumb and I wanted to stave off orthodontic bills when he's older. The first day was hard. He's so used to sucking his thumb for comfort that he had trouble getting to sleep. We ended up skipping naps that first day and letting him get good and tired before he went to bed that night.For the first day he continued to put the device in his mouth just out of habit. He didn't seem upset about having the thumb guard, but he did try to remove it a couple of times without success. If your child is the Houdini of thumb guards, they also include a strap that is trickier to remove. It shouldn't be necessary for a toddler.I left the thumb guard on day and night removing it only for bath-time. I was afraid it would irritate his hand, but that wasn't a problem at all. It seemed very comfortable to wear. Also, the silicone grips objects well so he was still able to use the hand almost normally.When the thumb guard got dirty (it is on a toddler's HAND after all), I just washed it with soap and water and then used a hair dryer to dry it.The directions recommend keeping the guard on for 3 weeks. On the 10th day, I forgot to put it back on after his nighttime bath. But he didn't revert to sucking his thumb. We watched him carefully and after a week without the device and no relapses, he seems to be cured!This was such a painless method of breaking the thumb-sucking habit I can't recommend it highly enough.Now a couple of warnings:The thumb guard was smaller than I expected. We bought the small size (12-36 months). It adjusts to two sizes. I put it on the larger setting and it fit his hand perfectly. I guess he does have large hands for a 14-month-old, but I didn't think they were 3-year-old size! You might have trouble fitting this guard on, say, a large two-year-old. However, in that case I recommend that you buy it anyhow; if it doesn't fit, go back and buy the other size. It's worth the money!The English instructions were not written by a native speaker, but you get the general idea. The instructions explain how to install the strap, but the thumb guard comes with the strap already in. When I had to adjust the size (which requires removing the strap), I just paid careful attention to how the strap was already installed before I removed it.Final word:With our older children, we tried coating with bitter liquid, fabric thumb covers, and even improvised socks or gloves with tape around the wrists. The Dr. Thumb Sucking Guard was SO much more effective and easy. I wish I'd discovered it sooner!

These are sold in one packs, which makes complete sense. My daughter favors one thumb...however as soon as I put it on her, she switched to the other. *Sigh*This is the best price I've found, through the seller GoodIdea0113, however it is traveling a long ways so it does not get received quickly. (I would say, it doesn't ship quickly but it does. It just has a long way to travel.) Please consider buying two for this awesome price...with the free shipping it's especially awesome...to avoid my mistake. If you purchase this, you will see what I'm talking about when three weeks later you still haven't received your item.So far, seems like it will work. I will update when I have two and can see how it really works. But, comfy, easy to wash, extremely easy to put on and more difficult to take off (YAY!) where I would say it's child proof. Flexible. My 3 yo (average height and weight, 34#) wears the size large perfectly.Update: for my older thumbsucker, who is now four years old, she is easily able to pull her thumb out rendering this device useless. She complains a lot about how the elastic feels but she is also very sensitive with sensory things. My two-year-old is just saddened by the concept of this and doesn't try to wiggle out of it or take it off. It is an effective deterrent to her simply by being on her hand. She does not seem to fuss at all or think it is uncomfortable. Their hands are about the same size, though my two-year-old is much plumper.This is not unfortunately a great solution for us overall. There are too many things the children can't do when these are on. We do a lot of activities such as ballet, swimming, and a lot of arts and crafts. Washing hands is a real pain in the behind when you have this on. Also, I would not want to send my child to preschool while wearing this. Well, I guess that that covers most situations for us - unless we are home doing sort of nothing, this is not a great solution for us, especially when one has to use it on both hands at the same time. Essentially anything that uses a pincer grasp, she cannot do. We did find it was effective to end mindless thumbsucking while sleeping at night. However, as a behavioral deterrent, I think this needs to really be used when the child is awake and can be reminded by this physical barrier to not suck their thumbs.Comes with spare elastic, which is a nice touch.

1) We ordered the small for our 3 1/2 yr old girl. She's pretty small, but it didn't work. She was smart, strong, and skinny enough to pull her thumb out of it (while keeping the bracelet on) to suck it, then slip it back on quickly if we were coming. So, didn't work for her.2) So, we swtiched it to the 2yr boy. If there is even the slightest chance your kid will switch thumbs, order two at the same time. We ordered one (and it worked). He stopped sucking that thumb, but soon switched to the other thing. So, we ordered another. Then he starting sucking one of his fingers. But, a week or so later, the 1st thumbguard broke (silicon tore). So...back to the drawing board.

I was so frustrated on getting our daughter to stop sucking her thumb since nothing was working. Once I noticed her teeth and jaw were changing shape I looked further into this topic and found Dr. Thumb. I placed it on her thumb the day it arrived and she hasn't fussed much about it. The first 2 days she kept saying "finger" trying to pull at it, she wanted it off. She never cried about and it never seemed to bother her. We kept it on all day, everyday for 3 weeks (like directed too) we only took it off during bath time so I could clean it and her thumb really well. We washed hands, ate, and played normally with it on. This has been the best thing to break the habit.