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[zak]

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[Wonder Woman]

I say put pepper on the PW's candy bar that she reaches for when *she's* stressed! :giggle

Oh wait, that's not gentle. Ooops.

Why oh why do parents see a need to take away their children's comfort measures? If this kid has been Ezzo'd, she's forced to self soothe - and now they want to take that away too? :banghead :banghead :banghead

[MarynMunchkins]

Well, personally, I don't see the big deal about a 2 year old sucking her thumb. :shrug Does her dentist have a problem with it?

But, I would try a band-aid on her thumb to remind her to stop or a sticker chart and reward before pepper. :td That's just cruel. :(

[zak]

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[Tulip_Plus_3]

You know, for years before I became a parent I was a landscape designer and garden consultant. A term I use to describe my gardening style is "gentle gardening". As a professional I made a point to always discourage anyone from using hot peppers or tabasco sauce or anything else to deter cats or squirrels in the garden. Why? Because if the animal got some in their eye accidentally (if they rubbed their eye, for instance) it could cause serious, serious damage. At the very least it would cause excruciating pain.

It just breaks my heart that people around the world have thanked me for pointing out the possible cruelty, pain, and harm they might inflict on animals by using hot peppers, yet other people see no reason not to expose their precious children to the danger that's an unacceptable risk for animals? Why oh why would anyone take that kind of risk? And over something like sucking a thumb? How is that worth it?

Perhaps PW needs to be asked if she'd like someone to put peppers in her eye. If the answer is no, then ask her why she's running a risk of doing the same to her little girl.

[mom2threePKs]

My dd sucked her thimb until she was seven. She was BWed and that was definitely her way of coping. A very wise friend once told me she'd rather pay for braces than therapy and that has been my attitude. When dd started to get concerned about frend seeing her sucking her thimb she was motivated to stop and it wasn't that hard. We did use a nail polish taht tastes bad at her request. Even the bottle of nail polish says very specifically Not for use in children under 2...Eye irritant. It took a couple weeks and she stopped. We also had a wonderful gentle dentist who told her it was time to stop shortly after she made that decision. When he would see her he would ask her "How things were going" never mentioning it by name so as not to embarrass her and praising her for her efforts. Overall it was such a positive experience, one that I think she looks back on as a personal accomplishment. I'm really glad we didn't take that away from her. My 3 year old sucks her thumb. Depending on her personality and temperment in a year or so I may encourage her to give it up sooner than DD1 but we'll just have to see.

On the other hand, she also has an $800 appliance in the roof of her mouth to correct her tongue thrust and the open bite. Thumb sucking definitely exacerbated that! But it is not the end of the world! Her teeth would have been a mess without thumb sucking just from genetics alone!

Magan

[zak]

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[Katherine]

Sad. My sis sucked her thumb too, and it became a "battle" and a source of frustration for Mom and Dad. Thing is, she learned how to get around every measure they took to make her stop. She sucked her thumb until she was good and ready to quit... and all that stress and upset was for nothing. If you take that comfort measure away from a kid, they'll find something else, and you may not like the new habit either.

People just don't understand that-especially with YOUNG kids-they need to suck. I was only able to b-feed my first son for a while, but he was very, VERY attached to his bottle. That snuggling/sucking thing just calmed him down instantly like nothing else would. People were pressuring me to get him off the bottle well before his first b-day, and I just looked at them liked they were crazy. He needed the comfort of sucking, and I knew he would still be suckling if I were bfeeding, so I just blew off their advice. He kept the bottle habit as long as he needed it and then one day just dropped it like an old candy wrapper with no prompting from me. :mrgreen Why don't people believe that kids WILL grow up (even without our shoving, rushing, pushing/pulling them out of childhood) ? ;) ;)

[heartofjoy]

I sucked my thumb until I was 9! My grandpa promised me whatever I wanted at Toys R Us if I stopped. No price limit! :highfive So I stopped. I got a Cabbage Patch Doll. What was I thinking??? :rolleyes

I vaguely remember my mom putting vanilla on my thumb. It tasted icky, but I would suck anyway. I think she may have tried hot sauce once, but I don't have any bad memories about it. They certainly never did anything cruel like that when I was still 2!

Anyway, my DENTIST said better to pay for braces than therapy too! :tu Let them suck, that's how God designed them! Besides, sucking exercises the facial muscles and improves appearance and bite. I personally don't believe normal sucking causes dental problems. I think they'd be there anyway.

[anniegirl]

Anyway, my DENTIST said better to pay for braces than therapy too! :tu

Yay for your dentist! That's a great quote!

[Beyond Blessed]

And if she DID go to college still sucking her thumb??? If that was the only "problem" I would consider her blessed! Sucking her thumb does not predict/effect her character. :doh If someone that old sucks their thumb, I would say it's done mostly in private and for comfort reasons. :blush

[CJ]

Speaking of thumb-sucking. My DD sucked her two middle fingers from age 4 months until 2 1/2. Then, when baby brother bit one of those fingers and she wanted a bandaid on it for a couple of days she switched to her thumb. Once the bandaid was gone she stuck with the thumb. I was surprised that after 2 1/2 years of fingers in just two days she switched to her thumb! Anyway, right around her third birthday, Grammie came for a visit and painted DD's fingernails. She was so concerned that the "pink might come off", she quit her thumb overnight. That was a couple of months ago and just recently, I've seen her suck her thumb while going to sleep a few times. Anyway, I'm glad to see that the habit is not as strong as I thought it was. If I were trying to wean her from it, I would try regular nail polish or a bandaid. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it.

[schoolofmom]

I think the bigger a deal parents make about it, the more likely their children are to continue the behavior in secret.

My MIL's sister sucked her thumb till she was 35. Her mom made her feel very shamed about the whole thing when she was a child. The only reason she quit was because she gave birth to her older son and spent the night in the hospital where she works as a nurse--she didn't want her co-workers to catch her so she stopped.

[TulipMama]

My dd sucked her thimb until she was seven. She was BWed and that was definitely her way of coping. A very wise friend once told me she'd rather pay for braces than therapy and that has been my attitude.

Same situation here. Actually, my son quit completely when he was 6, and then after another transition, started sucking again. He was sucking his thumb in the womb, so I chalk it up to part personality/part coping. (And, my Mom has already offered to pay for therapy for us! Don't we all need it! *L*)

Anyway, habits *are* hard to stop. I still have bad habits I struggle with. That's one of the things that we've talked about with my son. I'd much rather help him stop this habit now, than have him have it established even more and harder to stop later. He recently lost his top two teeth, and the impact on thumb-sucking on his new teeth has been a motivator for him.

As a reminder (for when he sucks his thumb unawares) we have used Thum Stuf. (Not as a punishment--but with his cooperation.) You can buy some at a drug store, but then I switched to using just a tiny dab of tea tree oil. The purpose is to help him realize when he's putting his thumb in his mouth, not to punish him for doing so.

Anyway. . . Not much help in offering advice to your pastor's wife.

[Dizzy Blond]

I read somewhere (forget ... maybe Dr. Sears' site) that most kids (like 99%) will quit thumb-sucking between 2 & 5. Hardly worth the effort of making a battle of it.

[BeckaBlue]

:( poor girl! ive let each of mine self wean from the pacifier. one did it at 3y4m when lil sis needed a paci and we couldn't find another :heart, next was 19mts, she jsut stopped caring. ds never used them.

my sis, at 24, still sucks her thumb! just at night when shes asleep though, who cares really???

reminds me of another young mom i met though, i was excited to meet another young mom ebf'ing her baby. a lil later when her babe was 18mts she put hot sauce on her nipple and let him nurse, no warning or any other trying to wean him. he got off and didnt nurse again :(

[butterflyqueen71]

And if she DID go to college still sucking her thumb??? If that was the only "problem" I would consider her blessed! Sucking her thumb does not predict/effect her character. If someone that old sucks their thumb, I would say it's done mostly in private and for comfort reasons

Well, my sister is in her early 40's and stiiillll sucks her thumb! :eek Personally, I don't see a problem with it, because it's in the privacy of her own home, and (I guess?) for comfort. She seems to be a well-adjusted individual to me, lol! Besides, we all have things we do for comfort...at least thumbsucking is 0 calories and doesn't go to the hips! It doesn't give you lung cancer, it's not illegal, you can't get drunk from it...there are worse things! I saw a woman on Dr. Phil once who sucked her thumb and was like 34 or something. Even he said it's not the end of the world...although he did give her some things to help her stop. :)

My dd sucks her thumb (she's 19mos) and I don't plan to ever "make" her stop. I do like the pretty nail polish idea, though! That was such a sweet story about the manicure! :heart

Back to the OP...it's a shame that your PW would put pepper on her daughter's thumb! :( So sad.

[anniegirl]

reminds me of another young mom i met though, i was excited to meet another young mom ebf'ing her baby. a lil later when her babe was 18mts she put hot sauce on her nipple and let him nurse, no warning or any other trying to wean him. he got off and didnt nurse again :(


Oh that's so sad! :cry That poor baby. It reminds of a story my great-uncle tells. My grandfather was one of eleven, all born at home and bf'ed. Supposedly my great-grandfather would make my great-grandmother put hot sauce on her nipples when he felt like each kid got too old to nurse. My great-uncle jokes that he used to climb on his mom's lap and say "Ma! I'm hungry!" :laughtears I can never get him to tell me exactly how old he was (I guess he's embarassed?), but he was old enough to remember because the hot sauce thing really traumatized him. He said he wouldn't go near his mom for a while after. :(

[cannuke]

I agree with the other posters that kids will quit when they're good and ready. I sucked my thumb until I was maybe 6 or 7 and I can't even remember why I quit. :shrug

My parents used that paint-on bad tasting stuff or taped tongue depressers to my thumb to make it too big and uncomfortable to suck. My answer was either to suck off the bad tasting stuff (I knew that they wouldn't give me anything that would harm me) or to switch thumbs (unlike a lot of thumb suckers, I wasn't particular - drove my mom nuts! :giggle ). Oh, or I would take the tape off after going to bed.

Yes, I had braces for 4 years and an orthodontic appliance for a bit before that, but overall it didn't hurt me in the least. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

If it's any consolation, if PW's DC isn't ready to quit, she just won't. If she's ready, then she will and (unfortunately) PW will think that she was "successful". :bheart Too bad that it doesn't sound like a relationship, it sounds like a dictatorship.

Oh, my cousin sucked her thumb too (is it genetic?). She had this really cute habit when she was really little of putting her thumb in her mouth and her index finger up her nose! :laughtears Not to pick, just a place to put the finger! I think when she got older, her hand got too big for that and she had to stop. Too cute to look at, though.

[Beyond Blessed]

Okay, I'll jump in again and be brave - my mom tried everything - Tabasco, bitter polish, bandages, threats, rewards...nothing helped. I quit for a year once a few years ago, but you know...we are tired of stigmas for AP'ing and homeschooling, and GBD'ing...well, I want to stand up a break the stigma for extended thumb sucking!!! :grin :tu I will quit when I can afford invisible braces, until then it isn't "worth it" to me to even go through all that effort. And no, I wasn't offended by anything in this thread, I just wanted to be brave :O


okay, I'm about to hit post....do I really want to do this?...

[ShowersofBlessings]

:highfive Thanks for posting this! I sucked my thumb till I was 12. I remember lots of things that my parents did to try to help me stop (bitter stuff on my thumb, etc). I never needed braces. But I *wanted* to quit so badly, but I just couldn't. I don't know how I finally quit.