Care and Feeding | Slate's parenting show - How to Help a Kid Stop Thumb-Sucking
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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
Today on the show: What to do when your kid won’t stop sucking their thumb. Lucy, Elizabeth, and Zak offer guidance for moving on from thumb-sucking—without turning to bribes or battles—as well as alternative methods of self-soothing. In ‘triumphs and fails’ Elizabeth and Zak wrestle with airports and big international moves, while Lucy deals with a budgeting tantrum.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode may contain explicit language. |
| 0:04.4 | Welcome to Karen Feeding. We're here to talk about the ups, downs, and everything in between when it comes to parenting. |
| 0:10.3 | I'm Zach Rosen. I make another podcast that's called The Best Advice Show. I am to add to Noah, who is eight, |
| 0:16.3 | and Ami, who's just about to turn five. We are back in Detroit. |
| 0:23.1 | Yay, welcome back, Detroiter. |
| 0:24.6 | I'm Lucy Lopez. |
| 0:26.9 | I host another podcast, the Mamasita Rica. |
| 0:29.0 | I'm mother to Amelia, who's 15, |
| 0:31.5 | Avery, who's 12, and we live in Miami, Florida. |
| 0:33.8 | I'm Elizabeth New Camp. |
| 0:35.9 | I write the homeschool and family travel blog, Dutch Dutch, Dutch, Goose. |
| 0:36.4 | I'm the mom to Henry, who 13, Oliver who's 11, and Teddy who's 8, and we are currently in Atlanta, Georgia. Every week, we answer your questions, share our own parenting triumphs and fails, and try to make this feel like the kind of conversation you'd have with your parent friends. And today we've got a question from a parent whose three-year-old is still a dedicated |
| 0:54.4 | thumb sucker. They're worried about the impact on teeth, but more than that, they want to |
| 0:58.3 | help their child learn to self-soothe without the thumb. We'll talk through some ideas and |
| 1:02.5 | invite you to share what worked in your family. But first, we share our triumphs and fails. |
| 1:07.1 | Zach and Elizabeth are transitioning back to the U.S. And my kids throw a budgeting tantrum. |
| 1:12.5 | So stick around. |
| 1:20.8 | Welcome back. |
| 1:21.7 | It's time for triumphs and fails. |
| 1:23.8 | Lucy, what have you got for us this week? |
| 1:25.9 | I think I've been very, very open with the show and more importantly, |
| 1:29.6 | when my children about how we budget in our house, right? |
... |
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