Thursday 17 January 2008

Thumb sucking

HELP!

This morning I had to lance Samuel's second pus-filled blister on his thumb. It is definitely time to stop this thumb-sucking business once and for all. But I have no idea how. Well, I do have one idea, but Jeff says rubbing raw chillis on Samuel's thumb needs to be a last resort. It was all so much easier with the other three who had dummies which I just threw out, but I can't exactly throw out a thumb, can I?

So I need some ideas. Anyone who has some experience, can you please leave a comment and let me know what you did to stop this habit? TIA!

5 comments:

Sharon said...

Thanks Emily, I'll keep this in mind if I can't find any cheaper options! Somehow I don't think the $20 (reward? bribe?) will work for Samuel at the moment, given he's only 14 months old. Did you just remind your girls continually through that one week?

Anonymous said...

Hey Sharon,

I haven't succeeded in this yet, though I haven't really tried. Here are some ideas I have read about though...
Band aids (cute ones that he can't take off)
bitter agent (maybe not chilli though!!)
taping thumb against his palm so he can't pull it out to suck


My two thumbsuckers don't suck during the day only at night. we did this throguh constant reminding. I can't see them giving up on the night time suck for a while as it is comfort and goes with their blankets. Maybe when we are weaning off their blankkets we will target thumbs...

Just some thoughts! we have to catch up again soon too!

Karen

Sharon said...

Thanks Karen. One of the older ladies at my church told me to try the bandaids, and they definitely stop it for a while. He goes to suck and then ends up nibbling at his thumb instead. The only problem is he does eventually work them off, even the Elastoplast ones!
I did think about taping his thumb to his palm or maybe his pointer finger. But given that he gets the bandaids off, what would I use for that? Duct tape?

And Joshua's bday is coming up. I'll email you.

Andrea said...

Try an ace bandage to wrap the thumb down? I only let my 1st 2 suck at night so I never realized when they stopped. But the 3rd - he's 2 and still sucking all hours of the day. I guess it's time to stop him but I'm not sure how either!
Andrea

Anonymous said...

Sharon,

I'll bring the article I wrote for FACETS about this to GEMS in Feb for you. It's, obviously, not the only way to do it, but it's worked for us with 5 so far. Calvin's turn is coming up.

In Him

Meredith
xx