No More Thumb

Ryann and I have recently been talking about having her stop sucking her thumb.  Do you remember when she told me that she would stop sucking it when she turned 8?  Yeah, I know. She was a pretty little determined girl.  Anyway, a friend of hers just got her ears pierced because she stopped sucking her thumb and Ryann thought that was a great incentive.

I told Ryann that I would look for ways to try and help her stop sucking her thumb. I found some help from facebook about books they can read or gross stuff they can put on their thumbs. I then asked Ryann what she thought would work and she actually said if her thumb tasted yucky she wouldn't do it anymore.

I decided to go local rather than ordering something from Sweden or online, so I stopped at Walgreens on Saturday and I picked up this little beauty.

I painted her and Cara's nails with it. I told Cara she was going to stop sucking her thumb too... and a typical redhead she promptly said "NO. I like to suck my thumb A LOT!" And she has continued to suck her thumb every day even with this stuff on it. She doesn't suck her thumb nearly as much as Ryann did, but she still is sucking her thumb.

Anyway, back to Ryann, the first night was pretty rough for her. Every night since has been a little rough, but I am so proud to say that she isn't sucking her thumb at all anymore!  She wanted to do it and she did. Every once in awhile she asks me to paint her thumb again because she is afraid she will suck in the middle of the night without realizing it. But every night she puts her silky far away from her and she goes to sleep lying on top of her hands or with her hands underneath her pillow. It is so precious to see her try so hard to accomplish something and actually do it.

Yes, I know she is 5 and it is about time that she stops sucking her thumb, but it has been her best friend. It has been her companion and something she has done every day to calm and comfort herself. The past couple nights she has come in once or twice to see if I would hold her and cuddle her back to sleep. I let her come into bed 1 time a night but the other times I am making her go back to bed after we say a prayer together that she will be able to fall back asleep without sucking her thumb.  By next week I think the urge to suck her thumb will be gone. Also since she isn't sucking her thumb she isn't asking for her silkies anymore. I knew the two were related, but I didn't realize how dependent they were on each other. Awesome. Killed 2 birds with one stone.

I am so proud of my Ryann for being such a hard worker and accomplishing this goal she set out to do.

She still hasn't talked about getting her ears pierced, I think she wants to wait until she really knows that she won't start sucking her thumb again and she is confident with herself.