My Baby B has been a fervent thumb-sucker since she was
about five months old. After her
infancy, she only sucked her thumb while she slept, but she was very passionate
about it.
Around the girls’ third birthday, we started talking with B
about her habit. We compared her healthy
left thumb to her gnarled right thumb, and encouraged her to give her poor
thumb a break.
We didn’t push it…it was mostly a joke…but over time B
agreed she wanted to quit, and she tried really, really hard. She would go to bed with her hand under her
pillow, or wrapped inside her blanket…but when I would check on her after she’d
gone to sleep, she’d be sucking her thumb.
On a whim, I asked B one night if she’d like to wear a sock
on her hand to remind her not to suck her thumb. She was giddy with excitement!
I had read one time that it takes 21 days to break a habit,
so in my mind, I thought I’d encourage her to wear her sock for a month.
A month later, B was VERY attached to her sock. She only wore it for sleeping, but before
each nap and nighttime, it was like she was being reunited with a long, lost
friend. The girls have never had any
lovey, but B’s affection for her sock was pretty close.
June of this year marked one year of B’s sock habit. Occasionally I’d ask her if she wanted to
retire her sock, and she would always say, “NO!
I LOVE my sock!!!”
A week or so ago, though, out of the blue, B told me she
wanted to sleep without her sock. She
gave it a hug and a kiss and left it on my nightstand for safekeeping.
Over the next few days, she would shower her sock with
affection before and after bed. She even
pretended to host a birthday party for her sock one day.
Those affections were pretty short-lived, though. The sock is still hanging out on my
nightstand (not necessarily because B wants it there, but – truthfully –
because I haven’t tidied up in a week).
B hasn’t mentioned it, though.
So…farewell, sweet Sock.
You served us so well, and you will live forever as a tender (albeit a
little odd) memory.
 |
| B, proudly showing off her sock upon waking up on her fourth birthday |
10 comments:
A sock...how cute is that?! When did all these kiddos get so big?? : )
Yay! She did it! Mandy, what a beautiful way to gently encourage her to break her habit. Well done, Mama! :)
Your girls are so incredibly sweet Mandy & that was a really smart and gentle way of getting her to break a thumb-sucking habit.
Too funny! ...and how creative that you introduced the sock as a means to end the bad habit.
A great one for the books!
Ha! Would never have thought of that
So precious. Don't forget to stick that sock in her baby book. :)
Well done on her! SUch a sweet little memory
How on earth did you have the patience so long?!!!
Love the little sock and did your heart break a little bit?
I will cry when Thursday and Friday get retired!
oh! that's sweet and funny!
All 3 of mine have a small blankie that they still are very attached to and sleep with. Sarah even took hers to her first sleep over and all 3 still take them to daycare for nap/rest time. Adam has even seemed more attached to it lately (likely due to some recent additional anxieties of his (i.e. dark, going anywhere in the house alone, etc). I am certain I'll likely be sad and nostalgic whenever one of them decides they're done.
On the thumb note - Jacob was a thumb sucker. Sarah and Adam both had pacifiers and their blankies but Jacob always had his thumb. We took pacis away at 1 year but I was worried how long that thumb would be his source of soothing. Then, one day, maybe around age 3.5 or so, we realized he wasn't sucking it at bedtime and couldn't remember the last time we'd seen him do it. I was sad for a moment but relieved we didn't have to deal with it any longer. :-)
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