My niece started thumb sucking when she was three months old. Of course, no persuasion had any effect on the child, but only made her nervous. And we decided to find a different approach to it.
Before going to bed, they told an instructive tale about how a little boy sucked his thumb and turned into a big frog. They added to the tale that this boy's mom and dad were very upset and cried a lot, but when he stopped doing this, he became a good and obedient boy again.
When my niece was fast asleep, we quietly smeared her fingers with green paint and went to bed (it is better to do this on Friday, because the child sucked her thumb all night and her whole mouth was green too). In the morning our emotions knew no bounds. She began to worry that she was turning into a big frog, and we reminded her that if she did not suck her thumb, she would remain a beautiful girl.
I had to spend the whole Saturday talking about the transformation, but it was worth it. Even when she went to bed after lunch for an afternoon nap, she did not take a finger in her mouth, but hid her hands under the pillow. After the evening bathing, all the brilliant green was washed off, and the niece went to bed contentedly.
On Sunday, we also listened to her stories about how good a girl she was, that she stopped taking her finger in her mouth. And on Monday, our princess buzzed all the ears of the children in the kindergarten about her weekend adventures. So the bad habit did not visit us anymore, but for the first time they persuaded us to bandage our finger at night, so that inadvertently in a dream it would not be in our mouth again.
