The amount of pictures I have with him sucking his fingers is amazing. The amazing thing is, every time I try to take a picture, I ALWAYS say "fingers out, Nug..." and yet, I still have this many pictures with him finger sucking!
This isn't an easy habit to break-- a paci you can just take away or have the "paci fairy" to come one night. But, you can't take his fingers away...
It's his left two fingers-- pointer and middle finger. Always.
He sucks his fingers when he is mad, when he's upset, when he's frustrated, when he's nervous...
He sucks his fingers when he is thinking, when he is watching something, when he is just hanging out...
He always sucks them to fall asleep. Always.
This was our attempt at his passport picture. I had to pry these fingers out of his mouth to get a usable picture.
Lately, he's been sucking his fingers NONSTOP. Like, every time I look at him, his fingers are in his mouth. And this is germ season!
The pediatrician said not to push it, and he would let us know when he was ready to stop. For a kid with some anxiety issues, it's good he has a way to soothe himself. Fine. But gross.
I thought it looked like his teeth were sticking out in the front, so at his regular dentist cleaning, I mentioned his lovely habit. She said that while it may bother us to have him with his fingers in his mouth, he was actually do no harm to his teeth or his bite. So we didn't have that ammo to use.
We let it go for a while and then insisted he could only suck fingers in his bedroom-- where he is sleeping (or where he is sent when he is misbehaving...), but that didn't work. At all.
For Christmas, Cal got a watch. He loooooves this watch. Andy was upset because he did not get a watch. I explained that watches are only for big boys and big boys don't suck their fingers. He said "okay, I won't suck my fingers any more." Obviously it isn't that easy, but having him on board is a HUGE part of the process. SO, we broke out the bad tasting polish (it is the worst tasting stuff EVER) and every morning, he wakes up and we reapply it to the two fingers. We take it off at night time to help him sleep-- sleep is such an issue over here that we need him to be able to soothe back to sleep. I have been going in to check on him in the night and he isn't sucking his fingers much in bed, so maybe that habit will ease out too.
We have been doing this for a week and he has done it! No finger sucking (during the day) for an entire week! Yay! He has picked out the watch he wants (it is all of $8) and I am ordering it for him....
We are celebrating over here. Sounds minor...but it's big!!!
ps- can I just say how much fun I had doing this post? I loved looking at all of these pictures!!!! I miss my little guys!!!!!
