Sunday, June 30, 2013

Thumb Sucking

We have spent much of the past couple weeks cleaning.  I think I've mentioned how the previous owners of this home left it pretty dirty.  We've cleaned all the obvious things that we use on a regular basis.  However, I keep finding crevices of cob webs, thick layers of dust on blinds or chandlers, dead bug filled light fixtures etc.  It is just gross.

You know what else I think is gross?  Sucking your thumb.  I realize a lot of children do, and yes it can be cute to see a very young baby sucking his thumb.  But as children get older I really don't find it very attractive.  There is something about a toddler walking around with her thumb in her mouth that I just don't like.  I know there are different schools of thought about tumb sucking.  I've heard many mothers say they couldn't wait till their baby found their thumb so he could sooth himself and put himself to sleep.  And quite frankly I do see the logic in that.  It would be nice to have a baby find her own thumb in the middle of the night rather than me hauling myself out of bed to find it for her and put it back in her mouth (that is before she can find it on her own and put it in her own mouth ).

When we were pregnant with Phoebe, Chris and I decided that we wanted her to take a paci and not suck her thumb.  We were diligent about giving her the paci and she didn't really successfully find her thumb till she was 4 or 5 months old; by that time she prefered the paci over her thumb so it was no big deal.  When she was 6 months or so we started only giving her the paci in her crib when she would sleep (or in the car to help sooth her to sleep).  Then when she was 18 months old it dissapeared from her bed.  Sure the first couple nights weren't pleasant (actually she didn't fuss too long- only 20 minutes or so) but after that she was fine.  Quick and easy.  That's the beauty of the paci.  When you want it to go away it can.  You can't cut off a thumb.

I would prefer Haddie Grace to love her paci as well, but folks I really think she is going to be a thumb sucker.  She has found that thumb and uses it well, and honestly I'm not sure if we will be able to stop it.  Which as I said earlier could be nice in the short run, but how do I make the thumb sucking stop later down the road?  








Were your kids thumb suckers?  Did you want them to suck their thumb?  And if so, how did you "wean" the thumb sucking?






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2 comments:

  1. haha i had the same line of thought about thumbsucking and got Jude to use the paci. No idea how you wean them from that, but for now, she does look cute doing it ;)

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  2. We tried to get Clay to take the paci to avoid thumb sucking but we got lucky and he doesn't do either! My mom said she put vanilla extract on my thumb to break me. Yuck!

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