Bye Bye Thumbkin

July 2003

This is my little baby girl only 6 weeks or so old.  Yep, she was an early thumb sucker.  And continued this until just after New Years.

2006

May 2009

December 31, 2010

We've been trying to curb this action for a while.  Mostly because her permanent teeth are definitely coming in.  Also, some kids have been making some fun of her (mostly behind her back).  We knew it was going to be a project.  She's tried before, but we never get far. Band-aids only worked for a day or so.   Thumb stuff on nails didn't work.  Hot sauce?  She just asked for more ;)

In September, I started a chore chart for the kids, and we've had great progress with it.  So I wondered if we could use something similar with her for her thumb.  She got to choose out a calendar and set up her "reward chart" for not sucking.  It started off with 6 special bags sitting on the piano.  Each day she didn't suck her thumb, she got to open a bag.  It worked great, the perfect starting point.  She could see that there was definitely something (dollar aisle stuff from Target) waiting for her.

Her second reward was after 1 consecutive week of not sucking -- pizza and movie night.  Her choice of toppings and movie.  Next in line was 15 days (starting back at zero) and she could go to the local kids salon and get a manicure.  Well, today we went to Snip-its and got her manicure.  And she got to brag to all the ladies there why she was getting her nails done.  So proud.  As are mommy and daddy.

This really seems to be working.  I haven't caught her sucking her thumb in quite a while.  Not even in the car or watching TV.  Way to go Boo!!!  One more month and she'll get a new DS game.  Hey, whatever works!!