At the beginning of this week Phoenix decided that he wanted to stop sucking his thumb. I have been warning him over the last month that when he turns three soon that he will have to stop. He walked into the office and was sucking his thumb and when I reminded him that he was going to stop soon and be a big boy. He got excited and said “Bi Boy”. He seemed so eager, I asked him if he wanted to stop sucking his thumb now. He nodded yes. I went out and got a bottle of Mavala Stop out of the cupboard (It is the nasty tasting stuff that you put on the thumb nail) and put some on. He sat there happily saying big boy over and over smiling to me and his brothers.
It was probably only about 45 minutes later when he put his thumb in his mouth for the first time. The taste was so bad that he gagged and threw up all over the floor. He threw up again when he tried to suck his thumb around nap time. Then the entire rest of the day he would not swallow. He drooled all over soaking 3 bibs, and 2 shirts. I felt horrible. I felt like this was a form of torture for him. The nasty stuff even takes a couple days to get off of the thumb – so I couldn’t just wash it off.
I got looking on Amazon for alternatives to help him stop sucking his thumb. I found a really neat idea that was an elbow brace that allows them mobility and the use of all their fingers, but prevents them from bending their elbow more than 90 degrees making it impossible to put the thumb in their mouth. Unfortunately that only costs $40! The other option was a glove that snaps around the kids wrist so that they can’t get it off, that only covers the thumb. That was $40 too!!!
I went and dug in the closet to find a couple mismatched mittens. I cut the fingers off and then sewed around the edge. When I first put it on him, he didn’t seem to like it, and started to pull it off. I told him that I thought he looked cool in his new “big Boy glove”. He looked at me in disbelieve. I then suggested we go ask his brothers. We then walked out to the living room and called all the kids over. I asked them what they thought of Phoenix’s special glove while winking like I had a permanent twitch. Covey understood and started grinning and told him that it was really neat. Now Phoenix loves his gloves.
I am still using the Mavala Stop, but now I put one tiny drip on the center of his thumb nail instead of coating the entire thing. Then put the glove on top. We are up to almost a week of no thumb sucking. He is still really excited about it. The glove helps him remember and he has a red one and a blue one. He has taken the glove off twice to try sucking his thumb. The first time he brought the glove back to me with a disgusted look on his face saying his thumb was “Yucky” asking me to help put the glove back on.
