Ever since Julia was about 3 months old she has sucked her thumb and I must say it's been something I've always disliked...mostly because of the germs and what it can do to your teeth and your speech as well. I guess it was a little cute when she was a baby but as she got older it wasn't cute and it seemed like she would suck her thumb often...while I would get ready, watching TV, in the car, reading books, going to bed, or if someone wasn't playing with her. Once she was old enough to understand we tackled one area of the day at a time to put a stop to thumb sucking and started with the TV. If she sucked her thumb when the TV was one I would turn it off. Accidentally she would start sucking her thumb while watching Sesame Street and I would stick to what I said and turn it off. Of course she would cry and scream but those were the rules...If you want to watch a show then no thumb sucking. I think I only had to turn it off a few times and she learned not to do it while watching TV. Next we gave Julia tickets if she didn't suck her thumb in the car (taking the positive approach) and she could use the tickets to buy something and then moved onto no thumb sucking while reading books. She loves to read books and she did great with just listening and stopping to talk about the story instead. For a while she's just been sucking her thumb to fall asleep at night or in the morning before she gets out of bed. We've always talked about when she wanted to stop we would help her and one night I went to check on her and she said she was trying to fall asleep without sucking her thumb. I asked if she wanted help and she said yes so I lied in bed with her and stayed until she fell asleep which took a while. For the next week or two Thomas and I took turns staying with her until she feel asleep. It usually took her a while but she would fall asleep without sucking her thumb so we did it even though it was hard on us and not realistic. So many times I would fall asleep too because I was tired. We decided that wasn't really working and she was pretty tired because it would take so long for her to fall asleep that we said let's give it a rest and try again later with another plan. After our Disney trip we decided it was about time to try again so one day I looked on Amazon and ordered the Thumbuster and thought we would give it a try. As you can see in the picture it covers her thumb and you velcro it around her wrist and it's made out of a soft silky material and the best part, it's pink...definitely a huge plus. The day it came in the mail she was super excited and wanted to wear it right then but we waited until bedtime since that's the only time she sucked her thumb. When bedtime came it was a different story and she cried and cried for a while and wanted us to take it off. Keep in mind she could have easily taken it off but with her personality she didn't...she can be such a rule follower at times which is great. She would ask us to take it off but we told her we weren't going to take it off and it took her a while to fall asleep. We'd check on her and calm her down and reassure her that she could do it and remind her about the times she'd fall asleep without sucking her thumb. She even told me that God made her to suck her thumb. We stuck with it and each night got a little easier and it's now been 14 nights that she's fallen asleep without sucking her thumb...actually it's been 14 days and nights without her thumb in her mouth at all. Habits are hard to break and we let her know that everyone has something that is hard for them to do and we would talk about how for some kids learning the ABC's is hard but it was quite easy for Julia. At times she was so sad and felt like she was alone, one of the first few nights she was crying so hard that she fell asleep on me as I was holding her to calm her down. It made me so sad to see her so upset but knew it was for the best. I must say she has done great and I think thumb sucking is a thing of the past but we'll continue to wear the Thumbuster at night as a reminder. We're so proud of her and will be letting her pick out a special toy for doing such a great job. Way to go Julia...we knew you could do it!
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