Bad habits they say hardly dies, especially the habit of tongue sucking.
The habit of sucking is a natural instinct that children develop as infants, usually when they begin feeding from their mamas breast . This natural instinct can be very comfortable for children, it can easily be carried over to other sucking habits such as thumb sucking which is usually calming, relaxing and fun for kids.
The best age to tackle this bad habits from kids is between the ages of 5 to 6 years of age.
Let’s look at natural ways you can prevent your child from tongue sucking.
1. Talk about it more often; talking to your child about habits that are bad is very essential because children are good listeners especially when you make them see reasons why what they do is bad. Make sure you state reasons why tongue sucking is bad for their health reasons like:
(a) Germs getting into their body which could lead to sickness,
(b) Teasing: let your child know that they become the center of laughter by there friends/mates if they don’t stop tongue sucking.
(c) Speech: tongue sucking affects the flow of speech of a child . Parents can use this to convince the child to stop sucking his/her tongue.
2. Find your child’s favorite tongue sucking times: this plan works very well. for most kids, watching TV and sleeping are two common times when kids fall back into their sucking habits, ensure you distract them during TV time .
3. Praise, all day: find a way to remind yourself or your child’s caregiver to praise your child for not sucking at least once an hour. Or gift then something as price to encourage them to stop sucking .
All these tactics needs time and patience to work. Don’t give up , instead keep trying until you archive the desired result.
BY MAIMUNA BAGUDU
