Thumb Love

I have an almost seven year old daughter. She was a thumb sucker. But, my husband and I began our campaign with this book to help her cease that behavior. I am very pleased to say that our efforts have met with success! No thumb sucking for 2 months now.This book is not a how to guide. It is humorous and acknowledges that this is addictive behavior (anyone who is friends with Bill W. will recognize a few phrases). If your child is a very literal thinker then this is probably not the best book for them. But, we used the relationship detailed in the book between Lulu (the protagonist) and her thumb to help my daughter write letters and say good-bye to her thumb. Also, as we read and re-read the book we discussed differences in the way Lulu related to her thumb sucking vs. my daughter. For example, Lulu sucks her thumb at the beach. My daughter thought this was disgusting. (Sand in the mouth!) We used her feelings of disgust regarding that particular behavior to explain how although we can't see germs they are going in her mouth when she sucks her thumb, just like the sand went in Lulu's mouth.If you have an imaginative child with a thumb sucking addiction then I recommend this book to you.

My 5 year old is a huge thumbsucker! I really cannot stand thinking about putting yucky stuff on her thumbs so I wanted to try a more natural route first. I read other reviews and thought it would be worth a shot. The story seems long and my daughter doesn't really get into it like normal books. We have read it to her a few times but still nothing. She doesn't even flinch when it talks about her thumb so not sure this is a cure for thumbsucking! :(

The book is a little odd.However, that being said - it worked. We read it every night (even though my son did not always want to) and it worked. He started to look at his teeth in the mirror and feel them - starting to stick out.The book worried him a bit about his teeth (a good thing and realistic) & also it was good how in the book the little girl tries and fails, and has to start over again. It made it ok that he didn't always succeed, or would forget.

This book is beautiful and funny for adults but it's really for a very old thumbsucker. I tried to read it to my 2.5 year old but I found myself paraphrasing almost every page. The expressions used in the book I didn't feel were age-appropriate for her to hear - not that they're inappropriate - but she just wouldn't get it plus I wouldn't want her repeating those phrases. It's based off the premise of a 12 step system for recovering alcoholics...so... plus - have you ever tried to get through 12 steps with a young child? Very nicely illustrated and it's funny to the adults but it's not really going to make a dent if you're on a mission to stop your child from thumb-sucking. Maybe if your child is 6 or 7...It has an illustration style similar to Cat in the Hat.

I was hesitant to give this book to my six-year-old because it is heavy on the pointing-and-laughing (which she has not experienced personally.) However, I did give her the book because it is the only one I know of that is reflective of her experience. She has been trying to quit her thumb for over a year -- with many starts and stops and frustrations along the way. She loves Lulu and her determination has re-inspired my daughter. She's asked me to read it to her many times.

I read the reviews of this book which lead to my decision to purchase it. I have a 4 year old boy who is a thumb sucker. This book makes a child feel sorry for the thumb! In this book the thumb talks to the girl who is trying to quit thumbsucking. Her, and her thumb are friends. So when the girl decides to quit sucking her thumb... the thumb gets sad and hurt feelings! I dont think my son got the message that the book was trying to make. He felt bad that the girl was not nice to the thumb anymore. At the end of the book it has a 12 step program to help thumbsuckers quit, I personaly didnt think this book was helpful at all. It had no effect on my son whatsoever.

After reading reviews saying that this book over-sold the benefits of thumbsucking, I crossed it off the list of options. Only after buying every other book out there, and getting nowhere with my three year old thumb sucker, did I give this book at try. Now I wish I'd bought it first. This is the first and only thumbsucking book that connected with my son. He gets it. And now he wants to "quit being a sucker," just like the book says.

Our daughter was pretty difficult to give up her thumb. This book really helped her see the struggle of it and helped her want to be a big girl. Although we ended up using some nail biting polish to get her to stop in the end. This really helped her to lessen being upset over giving up her thumb.

I was so desperate for this to have worked but unfortunately not for my 6 year old. Might if you had a younger one.