Goodbye Forever Sucky Thumb

Emma has been a thumb sucker ever since she was 6 weeks old and pushed the binky out, substituting her thumb in its place. At the time, I found this adorable and we loved to watch that tiny skinny thumb find its place in her mouth. When she became a toddler and increasingly relied on her thumb for assurance and comfort, we were a little concerned, but felt that she would break the habit eventually. Her dentist assured us that peer pressure in Kindergarten would force her into giving it up, but this did not happen. We have used gentle reminders, firm consequences, threats with a thumb guard from a magazine and even once putting hot sauce on it. When we would ask her why she needed to keep sucking it, she would say " It's just so sucky Mom." None of this worked. One mother in the commissary actually stopped me once when we were shopping and saw Emma sucking it and said she had tried everything with her son, even poop on his thumb!! I didn't want to ask who's poo, I just ended the conversation and ran away. It took the dentist last year telling her that she would have rabbit teeth if she didn't stop, that finally sunk in. The first day of school Emma came to me and asked for a thumb guard. I was shocked!! I quickly chose a much simpler and cheaper method, bandaids on the thumb. She hated the texture and wouldn't suck it with the bandaid. Well, we are now into week two and the callus on the knuckle is beginning to fade. When, we put the bandaid on for the first time that night, I said " Let's say bye to your sucky thumb" and she actually started to cry. So, I guess my baby girl is leaving one more aspect of her childhood in the wayside and growing up.