We have been working on Norah to stop sucking her thumb since she turned 3 in May. We tried about everything. Thum nail biting polish, Band-aids on her thumbs, athletic tape and gauze...you name it. After spending almost a year trying to break Grace of sucking her finger when she was little, and seeing how many of Emma's friends (in 1st grade) still suck their thumbs at school, we were convinced we needed to break this habit before it got too serious. She had already developed a pretty good callous on her thumb and the dentist noted how her teeth were starting to get pulled out from the sucking. After many failed attempts, we were getting desperate enough that we even talked about giving her a pacifier to see if it would curb her habit of her putting her hands by her mouth. She tried so hard and stopped sucking her thumb while she was awake, but in her sleep, her thumb still found its way to her mouth. After a few unsuccessful months, we changed tactics. We had tried earlier to have her sleep with socks on her hands, but she pulled the socks off as soon as we left the room. So instead, we bribed her to sleep with holiday socks on her hands. No talk about her thumb or not sucking it...just a goal to keep socks on her hands all night. if she could go 3 weeks without taking her socks off, she could have a pillow pet as a new sleep friend for a job well-done. I'm normally not a huge advocate of bribery, but in the case that most of this was unconscious behavior, and she really was trying while she was awake, I figured we'd give it a whirl. We sent a pair of fun socks to school for nap time as well and told her teachers about her new goal. Much to our surprise, she made it through the first week with only 1 slip up. Every night she kept her socks on long enough to fall asleep and then those fabulous socks worked their magic of not allowing her thumb in her mouth. 3 weeks later...a proud little girl with her new friend. Mornings that she sneaks into our bed, she'll pull her socks off and snuggle in next to us, but she hasn't ever put her thumb in her mouth. Hopefully a few more weeks of socks and we'll break the habit and learn how to sleep without needing the socks!
Monday, December 29, 2014
Thumb sucker
We have been working on Norah to stop sucking her thumb since she turned 3 in May. We tried about everything. Thum nail biting polish, Band-aids on her thumbs, athletic tape and gauze...you name it. After spending almost a year trying to break Grace of sucking her finger when she was little, and seeing how many of Emma's friends (in 1st grade) still suck their thumbs at school, we were convinced we needed to break this habit before it got too serious. She had already developed a pretty good callous on her thumb and the dentist noted how her teeth were starting to get pulled out from the sucking. After many failed attempts, we were getting desperate enough that we even talked about giving her a pacifier to see if it would curb her habit of her putting her hands by her mouth. She tried so hard and stopped sucking her thumb while she was awake, but in her sleep, her thumb still found its way to her mouth. After a few unsuccessful months, we changed tactics. We had tried earlier to have her sleep with socks on her hands, but she pulled the socks off as soon as we left the room. So instead, we bribed her to sleep with holiday socks on her hands. No talk about her thumb or not sucking it...just a goal to keep socks on her hands all night. if she could go 3 weeks without taking her socks off, she could have a pillow pet as a new sleep friend for a job well-done. I'm normally not a huge advocate of bribery, but in the case that most of this was unconscious behavior, and she really was trying while she was awake, I figured we'd give it a whirl. We sent a pair of fun socks to school for nap time as well and told her teachers about her new goal. Much to our surprise, she made it through the first week with only 1 slip up. Every night she kept her socks on long enough to fall asleep and then those fabulous socks worked their magic of not allowing her thumb in her mouth. 3 weeks later...a proud little girl with her new friend. Mornings that she sneaks into our bed, she'll pull her socks off and snuggle in next to us, but she hasn't ever put her thumb in her mouth. Hopefully a few more weeks of socks and we'll break the habit and learn how to sleep without needing the socks!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment