Thumb Sucker

Maddie started sucking her thumb in August 2006 when she was 20 months old, late for a child to begin this habit. She was a "paci girl" as a baby, and we took it away when she was a year old. Too soon, we think. The thumb sucking almost always occurs with a hair twirl with the right hand.

The glorious left thumb was found to be a perfect substitute the summer before we moved to San Antonio. The "germy" factor is the main reason I hate it so much, and also, she's 4.5 years old! The thumb goes right into her mouth when she's tired, bored, scared, or sad.

Take a look at the timeline:

20 months old, this is when thumb sucking was cute: August 2006

At 22 months, the pig tail made a perfect twirling accompaniment:

At 23 months, who doesn't love a little princess on Halloween?

At 27 months, ("Oh, man! Who is this baby, and why won't she leave!?") Thumbsuck, hair twirl and stare:

At three-ish (same pose, one zillion photos). Aimless staring at the TV, practicing her teenage routine of ignoring her parents: At four, pouting in the car, mid-hair twirl:

There have been plenty of empty promises to "stop on my fourth birthday," or "quit sucking when I start Kindergarten." Lies! Now, she wants to stop sucking her thumb when she's "seven or eight."

I can't let that happen. I know she will soon give up this habit, but her teeth are already screwed up and she has expressed the desire to stop. It's so subconscious for her she doesn't even realize she's doing it. One minute she'll say she's a big girl and isn't ever going to suck it again, and LITERALLY after she puts a period at the end of her sentence, I blink, and it's back in her mouth.

I've been doing some research on how to get her to stop and discovered Malava Stop. It is a nail polish and it, in conjunction with this book, might just be our solution.

We've been preparing her for this for about a week. The "fairy princess ballerina" was going to visit in the middle of the night, leave her a book, and a present. (Just like the Tooth Fairy.) Also, the princess will make your thumbs taste so bad, and you'll never want to suck them again. Really bad. Bitter, and probably toxic, so don't suck it!

So as any intelligent woman would do, I let the husband try it out. I painted Zak's pinkie Tuesday night and made him taste it. "It's gross," he said. "Here, you taste it," as he offered me his pinkie to suck on.

Convinced this was the right time, I ran upstairs to find Maddie sound asleep with her thumb in her mouth. I painted her right thumb instead (worried that she'd discover a gross left thumb in the morning and make the logical decision to switch hands).

(Do you remember playing hide and seek as a child, and the anticipation of the game makes you not be able to hold in your laughter--or your pee? That is how I felt attempting to be as stealthy as possible while applying the poison polish to my sleeping child's thumb.)

I reported my activities to Zak, and then went back after a few minutes to find her sleeping wide open mouth and her left thumb out as if she was waiting for me. I quickly polished, dropped off her new loot, and ran out.

Then...I worried all night. I was afraid to traumatize her so much that in the middle of the night, she'd run out gagging, crying, and begging for mercy (and the return of her tasty thumb).

Instead, she woke up at her normal butt crack of dawn time, found her loot and came running into our room. She said her thumb tasted "kinda bad," and wondered if the "princess ballerina" came to visit last night. So, I read her the book (at 6:15 a.m.) and showed her that her new toy was also a thumb puppet and something she could play with when she felt the urge to suck her thumb. I also told her she could take it to school to show her friends!

When we got to school, I told the teacher what was going on, and Ms. Carolyn said she'd be happy to read the book to the entire class (apparently Maddie isn't the only thumb sucker). I was worried that because she uses her thumb to self soothe, that she'd have a hard day.

I was wrong! She had a great day, and never sucked her thumb. We went to have ice cream to celebrate. Maddie told me she put her thumb in her mouth a few times, only to be quickly reminded by the terrible taste.

Today is the second day of my thumb sucking intervention, and I'm fairly confident that we've reached the end of an era. Congratulations, Maddie, we're very proud of you!