My 20 month old daughter was a habitual thumb sucker. Nothing we did could stop her or deter her from the habit. Did the bitter nail paint, and constant reminders to remove her thumb from her mouth….the nail paint lasted for a day and then she just worked through that taste too.
I saw this device and thought it would be about the only thing that might work that she couldn’t take off or get around. The first couple of hours were complete hell, her throwing a couple of crying tantrums and having a meltdown or two. Bedtime that night was terrible, but I put her to bed an hour later than usual, so as to shorten the first time falling asleep without her source of self soothing she has learned since she was 3 months old, so she’d be very tired and ready to fall asleep.
Yes, she could still get her thumb in her mouth if she tried REALLY hard, but it was difficult and caused her discomfort and as soon as she fell asleep it would slip out of her mouth. Since I was trying to accomplish getting the thumb out of her mouth during the nighttime this satisfied me greatly, especially considering it was just the first night.
That was 7 days ago. Today my daughter doesn’t suck her thumb at all while wearing the Nipit and I’ve found that if I align the stiff brace like part of the device with the back of her elbow and make it pretty snug she also can no longer put it in her mouth at all. Since they say that breaking a habit takes about 21 days I feel that we have another two weeks to go before it is something that will stick. However, I do take the Nipit off several hours a day when we are doing activities or playing outside and she is going to be fully stimulated enough that she wouldn’t even think of her thumb.
Overall I think this device is pretty ingenious and is certainly working. You have to stick with it and also re-adjust it from time to time, but it is definitely worth it if you are bothered by the habit or worried about any future dental damage that might occur if thumb sucking went on much longer than 2 years of age.
In full disclosure….I did convince my daughter that this Nipit was a “Hero Arm” and gave her powers….now she wants to keep it on!!!
Jennifer L. Bakies