My View: Catherine Scott

However, as they have got older and baby teeth are being replaced by “big teeth” and cautionary finger wagging every time we visit the dentist, we now spend most of our time getting them to remove the said digit from their mouths.

With my eldest it proved fairly easy. She is a strong-willed in individual and at around the age of six she decided to stop and that’s exactly what she did.

It is proving somewhat more tricky with her little sister who just adores her thumb, which sneaks into her mouth at almost every opportunity, but particularly when she is tired.

She is seven and her “big” front teeth are already appearing and despite warnings of ending up like Bug’s Bunny she just can’t seem to stop. Part of me feels cruel even trying to deprive her of something which obviously brings her such comfort, but then I see grown-ups or celebs like Rihanna still sucking her thumb at 23 and it gives me new resolve.

According to a recently published report one in ten adults can’t shake the childhood habit. Not only is it bad for their image, it is bad for their health. Apparently sucking exerts a negative pressure inside your mouth, narrowing the upper set of teeth and giving you an asymmetrical bite.

Orthodontists make a living out of correcting the years of damage done by thumb-sucking with all manner of different corrective treatments – most of them pretty expensive.

But just before you head out to the shops to buy some disgusting ointment to paint on your little one’s offending thumb or fingers, or a contraption to put over it to stop them sucking, there is another school of thought.

Les Joffe, chief executive of the British Orthodontic Society, said orthodontists had to take a careful approach in tackling habits which children used as an emotional crutch.

“We know that children suck their thumb because it has a pleasurable, soothing sensation,” said Dr Joffe.

“If you are too harsh in trying to break one habit in a child, the risk is that you cause a whole new habit – maybe a more difficult one, such as bed-wetting. The psychology of it can be difficult.

“Personally, I always advise parents not to force the issue too much, and to use incentives rather than to issue too many threats about buck teeth, which often turn out to be empty, since we don’t know which children will suffer consequences from sucking their thumb.” So it sounds like it is back to bribery, sorry, rewards again.