Our sweet little Ella has been a thumbsucker since she was born. She loves to twirl the satin ribbon attached to the end of her "pillow" and suck her thumb. Allyn and I decided that she might be ready to stop, so we bought this book that uses real life illustrations and tells the story of a little boy named "David" who wants to stop sucking his thumb too. She was surprisingly VERY intrigued by the book and seemed like she wanted to give it a try. We wanted this to be a very positive experience for her, so we have tried to take baby steps so that she can feel successful. It started with "Barbie" bandaids wrapped on the thumbs at night. That was chalked up as a failure when we observed her sound asleep, sucking right over the bandaids. The next try was socks over the hands. I know it sounds crazy, but we got the idea from the book. That's what David tried to help him. It was met with some resistance, but she eventually warmed up to the idea. We are now on day 3 of sleeping during naps and at night with our Auburn socks on our hands and no thimbs in the mouth. What you can't see in the pictures is the tape around her wrists to keep her thumbs from accidentally "sneaking out" while she's sleeping. She is so proud of herself and we are proud of her too. My baby is really getting to be a big girl now!
4 comments:
YAY Ella!!!! What a feat!
We are all about baby steps in our house, too. Going all or nothing has never worked out for us. Great job! We might have to remember this for Reese down the road. She has taken to sucking her first 2 fingers...same ones that I did!
Socks worked for me!
Be mindful of changing socks...I awoke with a mouthful of wool when my mom forgot to pack my Holly Hobby socks:)
Best of luck!
Sasha
Way to go, Ella! That is great! We had to take baby steps like this with Leah's paci - she slept with it cut off for several months before we accidentally left it at my mother-in-laws house last Thanksgiving! It never returned and she has never looked back!
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