It has been a battle and one that Tom and I finally figured out that we couldn’t win on our own terms. For those of you who know Jenny Wren, you know that she has had a problem sucking her thumbs. And you probably also know of her determined will. So in the last year we have tried everything under the sun to get her to stop–taking away her favorite blanket (threat turned real), reward of something new and fun (bribery), explanations of why she needs to stop (misshapen teeth, speech problems–both of which she has, and she is almost 5). We tried an incentive program recommended successful by my cousin Kristi and her little girl Malia which included sewing socks to zip-up pajamas and a daily record of success. But up to that point nothing really worked, in fact these things seemed to make it worse. We decided that we were just going to leave it up to Jenny. We knew her determination and that she can do amazing things when she sets her mind on something. She starts kindergarten in the fall and the fact that she still sucked her thumbs had been weighing heavily on her mind. I knew she wanted to stop, but she didn’t know how to go about doing it. And honestly, Tom and I didn’t know how to really help her.
Then, this last Monday, I took the kids to a pediadontist. I knew what was coming as far as the thumb sucking was concerned and I was a little anxious. The dentist was very kind and explained to Jenny what was happening because she sucked her thumbs. Then he asked her if she wanted to try something that she hadn’t tried. She said yes. So we bought it and took it home to try. She didn’t understand how it worked exactly. That night as I was preparing to paint her thumb nails with bitter-tasting polish, Tom asked Jenny Wren if she knew what this stuff did. She said that you paint this stuff on every night and it slowly eats your thumbs away until you don’t have thumbs anymore. And she was serious. She was so ready to stop sucking her thumbs that she was willing to get rid of her thumbs. Tom and I laughed under our breath and then explained that it makes her thumbs taste really bad to remind her not to suck them. And. . . .the stuff worked. For the first night since she was three months old, Jenny didn’t suck her thumbs. That first night was VERY difficult for her. She probably got only four or five hours of sleep. She sobbed and cried a lot. But finally she fell asleep. And each night since then has gotten progressively easier for her. And now it has been three nights in a row. And although the nights are getting easier, our little girl is still a little sleep deprived. I found her asleep like this right after lunch today. Notice no thumb in the mouth. I am so proud of her.
