Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Life Revisited

I sucked my finger until I was 7 years old. I would suck my right index finger and rub the lace on my blanket. ~sigh~ I loved that.

When my parents had finally had enough with my finger sucking they went to the dentist for help. (at least I think it was the dentist) The dentist gave my mom some nasty tasting brown stuff to put on my finger. They put it on my finger and I was pretty sure it wasn't going to make a difference, then I put my finger in my mouth. Yuck! It was so bad, I never sucked my finger again. I swear I can still taste it in the back of my throat. Terrible!

Gloria, my only thumb sucker, just turned six and is still sucking her thumb. I am a little more sympathetic to her situation than her dad is but it really is past time to stop. We've tried everything we can think of, incentives, punishments, even hot sauce. Gloria liked the hot sauce the best because, "it's only hot for a minute and then it's all gone." We've tried everything, that is, except for the $400 implant the dentist suggested; with the understanding that it was not a guarantee.


~Enter hand sanitizer

I have never liked hand sanitizer and the only time I've ever purchased it was when it was on the "back to school" supplies list. The idea of chemicals as well as dead germs on my hands really doesn't make me feel any better that just plain old germs.

sick 5 year old Gloria

Gloria told me last year that Germ-X tasted bad. She also told me that even when you wash you hands, it still tastes bad.

I bought some today and told her to put it on her hands, especially her thumb. She cried but she did it. I hope it isn't poisonous.

4 comments:

Mom in Mendon said...

Good luck to all of you.
Love, Grandma

Erin said...

oh man, this is our issue with jonah. the dentist told us if he continues to suck it will change his bone structure in his jaw. irreversible. he did great with incentives. he stopped sucking for 30 days, got a video game and started right up again. maybe we should try hand sanitizer. let me know how it works.

Shannon said...

Having two little boys that barely have their pants up before they are running out of the bathroom to get back to whatever activity they were doing before they went into the bathroom, I have hand sanitizer all over the house. There have been times when I have used the sanitizer and then my hands went in my mouth for some reason or another and I was left with the terrible taste of the sanitizer. There's a product called Thumb that I bought at the grocery store in the baby aisle that sounds like what your parents used on you, have you tried that with Gloria?

Nana Donna said...

Natalie used to suck on her blanket, I cute it down till there was only a tiny piece left and then finally it was gone....I know, you can't cute off Gloria's thumb! But maybe you can threaten her........Just kidding! Really I do wish you luck. Natalie has the same problem with her little girl, maybe you can both come up with the best solution.