Hallie Bulkin (YouTube) explains that airway health—proper lip closure, tongue on the palate, and nasal breathing from birth—is foundational to stopping thumb sucking. Practical interventions discussed include replacing the thumb with purposeful chewing tools ("munchy", chewy tubes) to build orofacial musculature; behavior plans (e.g., sticker charts) are presented as secondary and only appropriate after airway issues are addressed.
Chapters
And, you know, yes, babies do take time to clear like that. Those lips should be together. We should have the tongue on the palate. We should be nasal breathing literally from birth. So just like, let that sink in. Okay. Anyways. All right, so what else can we do then? We can replace the thumb, potentially with the munchy, appropriate chewing tools. Right. We can also use things like chewy tubes and other types of chew, you know, objects and everything that are meant for this because we're giving them, like, a purpose behind the function like this. This is purposeful chewing. Right. This is purposeful function. We're building musc. We're helping support the orofacial complex with doing this. And it also will help set up a positive. You know, if you want to set up, like a type of a behavior plan, which some people get really, really hung up on. I don't love them. But if you want to do that, like, if you tried everything else and nothing else is giving, then maybe that's where this comes in. But like, you know, a sticker chart, something like that. Yep. Can only do something like that after airway is addressed.
