Thumbs - part 1

Well, it's time. Daniel must stop sucking his thumb. He's only 2, and normally the dentist wouldn't worry about this now, but Dr, Morgan says that it's affecting his bite. So, rather than wait and need to spend thousands on orthodontia later, we are going to work on this now. We spent last weekend mentioning it to Daniel and asking him "where's your thumb?" so he'd start getting used to the idea.

Monday he came to me in the morning and said "I need a band-aid for my thumb mommy." holding up his little thumb. He looked like a little Fonzie in Superman jammies holding his puppy. Too cute for words. He was very excited when I put a Shrek bandage on his thumb. I also said that if he still has it on at the end of the day, he'll get a cookie. Daniel's currency - trains or cookies. Apparently he made it through most of the day but the bandage fell off just before nap. His teachers tried to pull his thumb out of his mouth, but he tends to suck very hard while he is asleep.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were repeats of the above. Bandage in the morning, but it would always fall off. I was at the dentist on Thursday so I picked up some Mavala Stop. It's a nail polish that is supposed to be very bitter. I didn't try it. You swipe a coat on the necessary digit's nails every two days. So Daniel got his first coat last night.

This morning, I asked Daniel "Where's your thumb?" and, as usual, he showed me. When I pulled out the Stop, thinking I should be sure that the first coat held well enough, he looked a little concerned and said "I don lie tat." (I don't like that.) So, maybe it's working already. I didn't do another coat today, I'll follow the directions on the bottle and see how it goes.

I really hope this works. I don't want to be a mean mommy, but we really need this habit to be over. If the Mavala doesn't work, there are a couple of appliances we can try on his hand. That being said, I am concerned that he has too small of a hand for what is on the market (he is such a peanut). There is a custom fit option, but it's about three times as expensive. The last resort will be a dental thing, but they don't usually put those in until the child is about 6, as it attaches to molars.

Watch for updates.