bye bye thumb!

All three of our thumb suckers (cailey, braden, and ephram) have stopped at two thanks to a dentist who checked cailey's teeth at her first dental appointment. I can't thank her enough for her great advice to stop NOW because it was going to effect her mouth...plus it ended up making life MUCH easier doing it while they were young. When they turned 1 they went to only sucking it in the crib. Then when they are 2 (or right before) we do the whole ace bandage/sock/ no more thumb thing for nap and bedtime. This was taken the first time ephram ever got it on. He thought it was HILARIOUS and wanted a sock on his other hand too...then one on doggie's 'hand'.


I FULLY expected him to scream his head off that first night (like the others did for days) and waited....and waited to rush in and snuggle him. See...he's the baby and no one really believed I'd be able to be strong 'breaking' him of his thumb if he cried. GOD must have known that too because he.never.cried.ever. Naptime was the same the next day and for three days he never cried. I will say that when we'd ask him to give us his hand he would purposely give us the wrong hand with a sly grin on his face or say, "no want to"...but he never cried. A couple days later when he was EXHAUSTED and had no nap he woke up a lot crying but I am convinced it's because he was tired.


Singing the 'bye bye thumb' song with mommy and daddy. Oh...he's gotten it off once and was sucking his thumb that morning (a week later) but hasn't managed to do it again. It'll stay on for a while until we think the habit is broken...and for now he's not bothered by it at all (praise the Lord!)


We put on a sock...then wrap the ace bandage, then safety pin it to his clothes. See my happy guy?? He's not sad at all:).

Another GREAT reason why we like doing it young is because I sucked my two fingers until THIRD grade. The dentist and my parents tried EVERYTHING to get me to stop...sticker charts, bribery, anything they could think of. I can even remember when I was in Kindergarten having my tonsils out in the hospital and mom said she would leave me if I didn't stop...talk about being scared! That didn't even work. Finally when I was in THIRD grade they put this painful spikey contraption in my mouth (which cut up my tongue in the beginning) which would stab into my fingers if I tried to suck them. Needless to say it worked:). I was the only one who sucked their fingers and the only one who didn't need braces:). Thankfully our kiddos won't have to go through that since we are taking care of it now. When I asked Braden and Cailey if they remember sucking their thumbs they say 'no'. Even a year they stopped I asked and they had already forgotten. Just like sleep training...the younger you do it, the better off for everyone involved:)

big boy bed...check!
no thumb...working on it
potty training...coming up in june!