Keep motivating them
Both my kids did not use a pacifier, but they sucked their thumbs. I’ll just share how I convinced my elder girl to stop. Trying to see how I can't get my second one to stop now!
Honestly we didn’t believe in being strict with her, because both me and hubby, decided that when she was ready she would attempt to stop. She did try several times, when she was 3. She came to me and said she was not going to suck her thumb anymore because she was a big girl. But as much as she wanted to she wasn’t ready and she went back to sucking her thumb.
Once when she was 4, she said she really wanted to stop but it was very difficult. I told her it’s not going to be easy but mummy will help all the way. So we made an agreement. I told her every night (she was only sucking her thumb at night) if she did not suck her thumb to sleep, I would get her a present the next day. That got her excited and I made sure I got her stickers, books etc (not expensive stuff and no sweets/chocs). I also made charts and asked her to stick the stickers for every night that she didn’t suck her thumb. The first few nights were the hardest. She would toss and turn and cry and said she couldn’t sleep. I gave her a bolster and asked her to hug the bolster when she had the urge to suck her thumb. Of course, the first few days she would suck her thumb in her sleep without realising it. The next morning, I would congratulate her and tell her she did it, and kept motivating her that she was doing great.
Within a week she stopped altogether. I am so happy that we never forced her.
My niece also sucked her thumb and the parents were very strict and kept on forcing her to stop. So what they did was they painted her thumb with something bitter. What happened was she stopped sucking her thumb but resorted to biting her nails. - Malini Sailin, mother of “two adorable little girls” aged 3 and 6
Symbolic 4th birthday
My son is a big thumb-sucker. He sucked his thumb for about four years. We used his fourth birthday as a big symbolic date for him for when he would become a big boy and stop sucking his thumb. Actually he really, really couldn't wait to turn 4 and he promised that when he turned 4 he would stop sucking his thumb and he did it. But he told me a couple of weeks before that that he was going to suck it every day until he stopped. And he really did suck his thumb right up till the very last day. It was just a big date for him. We were psyching him up for that for about two months. – Melissa Lozano, mother of four children from 14 months to 5 ½ years