Michele Campbell-Schinker This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Thumbkin

   www.nothumb.com/news4.html - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/22/2004   Last Visited: 8/24/2006

   Only 15 percent of children still suck their thumbs after the age of 4, said Michele Campbell-Schinker, a registered nurse, and pediatric case manager for Edward Hospital in Naperville.
   ...
   "When you get to the older kids, especially when they're being made fun of at school, they'll want to stop," Campbell-Schinker said. In Nahikian's case, she had a feeling her son wanted to quit because he wouldn't put his thumb in his mouth around friends.
   ...
   Some doctors recommend putting a bitter solution on a child's hand at night, but Campbell-Schinker said anything chemical or spicy is not recommended. And besides, the problem usually emotional and not physical, she said. Children use thumb-sucking as a coping mechanism to deal with stress, anxiety or boredom. Parents should give the child a diversion, such as asking them to hold onto a blanket or a trinket in their pocket to replace the behavior, Campbell-Schinker said that becomes the lesser of two evils. "It's a lot easier to stop a pacifier than thumb-sucking," she said.
   ...
   "Sometimes it takes going through a couple of methods before you find the one that actually going to work," Campbell-Schinker said.