Jan 11th, 2008
The Best $30 I’ve Ever Spent
OK, maybe not THE best, but it’s certainly up there! Can something you buy but never actually use be considered “the best” thing you’ve ever purchased? Let me explain. My 5 year old has been sucking her finger since the first time I laid eyes on her tiny bean shaped self on a sonogram . . . yup, her finger was OBVIOUSLY in her mouth. I’m convinced that when the doctors pulled her out of my tummy in the OR on her birthday, she only cried because they pulled that darn finder out of her mouth! She’s pretty good about not sucking it “just because” - like when we’re playing or she’s at school and all that jazz. But, the minute she gets within 10 feet of her mimi (her blanket) or if she’s tired, in goes the finger. She doesn’t suck her finger when she’s scared or nervous, just when she’s tired or touching that damn blanket. We finally decided that at 5, this needs to stop - she’s got my teeth (lucky girl!) and will not need braces - IF she stops sucking that finger!
For the past month or so we’ve been gently reminding her to take her finger out of her mouth. She does it without complaint, but every now and then she will say “But it’s just so hard not to suck my finger when I’m near my mimi or holding my mimi.” So, we took mimi away - for one day. I couldn’t do that. Take away her mimi AND make her stop sucking her finger? Heck, my 7 year old still keeps his mimi on his bed. And, taking the mimi away did not do anything for her finger sucking - if anything, it made it worse. What to do next?
I read a post on my friend Ami’s blog. It talked about this thumb guard her dentist suggested for them. You can view it here. Here are a couple pictures…
 
Looks great, huh? EXCEPT, note which finger is NOT covered with either of these items. Yup, the forefinger, the one finger that Miss Keira puts in her mouth.
So then I heard about this product from my sister-in-law. She used it to get her 8 year old son to stop biting his nails and said it worked wonderfully! The Control It! arrived in the mail on Tuesday. I put a tiny bit on my finger just to see how awful it really did taste and OMG! For good measure, I had Hubby and Son try it (you know, that old ‘oh man this is nasty! Here try it - does it taste bad to you?’). Hubby wrinkled up his face and felt compelled to wipe his tongue like Sid in Ice Age. Son pulled out all the drama and faked every form of vomit you can imagine. Daughter, of course, after seeing that Oscar winning performance, would not come near the stuff! I told her that the rest of us tried it and that I wouldn’t put it on her finger, but she had to at least try it off my finger. So she barely touched her tongue to the tip of my finger and immediately shut her mouth, wrinkled her face, and started to cry. Now it definitely does NOT taste good, but it’s not the worst thing ever, either.
BUT, this was the perfect opportunity to explain to her that I was not going to use this on her finger - YET. She had through the weekend to work really hard on not sucking her finger. If she did well, we won’t use the lotion. If she can’t make progress, then we’ll use the lotion.
Not ONCE, outside of her being in bed with her mimi, have I had to remind her about that finger. She’s trying so hard and has not put her finger in her mouth during daylight hours or outside of her bedroom ONCE since the tasting incident of ‘08. I can tell she really wants to, but she’s working so hard at not doing it. I’m so proud of her!
So there you have it - I figure anything that makes my very willful child work so hard to stop a bad habit just by BEING in the house is a good investment - whether we use it or not.
Keep your fingers crossed for my littlest one so we don’t have to use the nasty nasty lotion on her finger.
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I am so grateful that neither of my kids sucked their thumb or fingers. Yes, they had a pacifier until they were 3 1/2 but only in their room and I’ll take that over a finger any day - because you can eventually throw it away. And luckily, they were particular about the kind of pacifier. Good for Keira for being a tough girl. That probably deserves a trip to Chuck E. Cheese : ) (sorry, that’s cruel and unusal punishment for a parent).
Ugh. I was a thumb sucker. My parents put this nasty, nasty fingernail polish stuff on, that tasted like a dirty penny. I had a metal bed frame at the time and I remember that I would suck on my finger and then press my tongue on the cold metal to eliminate the taste. Or, I would make my mouth really cold with water and then suck anyway.
Don’t worry. I finally outgrew it.
Fingers crossed, trying not to suck on them in the process…The power of suggestion is pretty amazing!!
My son went through this weird phase where he chewed on his longs sleeves. He chewed some of them so much that he chewed holes in them. It made me NUTS. Eventually he moved out of the phase but for a while I toyed with making him wear short sleeves to school even in the winter.
Yay for her!
Joelle used to have trouble with biting her nails (uh…like mother, like daughter, i suppose — oops!).
We said that once she stopped biting her nails, she could start wearing nail polish.
It worked really well.
We used this same concept on Liam for nail biting. He hated the lotion, so he quit biting with the promise of a new, cool toy, and we promised no lotion, as long as he kept up to his part of the deal. It worked! We’re about to try the same idea on Garrett for nail biting, too. Good luck for Keira!
I was a thumb sucker! My parents used that nasty nail polish stuff…blah! I finally outgrew it….good luck for Keira!
Way to go Keira…. and Mom. It IS so hard - for both of you.