thumbsucker

My youngest, M, is a thumb sucker.

In my opinion, she is far too old to be sucking her thumb. She is also getting very lax and sucking it around the house. It used to be just a night to go to bed, but now I'm noticing she is sucking her thumb while watching tv, while playing on the computer - any downtime, the thumb is in her mouth. She's smart enough not to suck her thumb in preschool where other kids might see her but when she's hanging out around the house, its becoming way too commonplace.

Yesterday I told her four times to get her thumb out of her mouth and she was sitting right beside me! Finally - that was it. Cayenne pepper.

When she was much younger, I dipped her thumb in cayenne pepper and the wiped it off so that just the vague residue would be there when the thumb went back in her mouth. I didn't notice anything until a little while later when she came running down to the kitchen sputtering and wiped her tongue on the kitchen towel. She gave me a dirty look, washed off her thumb and cursed me under her breath. Ok, I don't know that for sure - but it wouldn't surprise me.

I felt guilty and surmised it hadn't really worked anyway - so I gave up the cayenne pepper and instead resorted to saying every time I saw the thumb in her mouth - You don't need that stinking thumb-thumb! Get your thumb-thumb out of your mouth! You can't go to school if you suck your thumb. You're too big to suck your thumb.

She got to saying things like: I don't want to go to school or I'm not BIG - I'm little!!

So then, I stopped with the cute talk and resorted to saying point blank - do not suck your thumb anymore! And she would climb off my lap or walk away from me, cover herself with a blanket and suck her thumb. I would look down at my empty lap, remember that there were no more babies to fill the abandoned crib in the basement and I'd end up saying - listen, I'll let you suck your thumb if you'll come cuddle with me for a few minutes...

There is no hope for this child - she will inevitably become depraved and completely messed up because I have no backbone and I'm sending mixed messages - I'm aware of this.

Then came her first dentist appointment. Ahah! I thought - now the dentist can tell her what a terrible habit it is and how it is ruining her teeth. Instead, he said to us - in her presence - her teeth look really good. You can tell she doesn't grind her teeth or suck her thumb. NO! I said - she does suck her thumb. I was hoping you'd explain to her...and he said - oh! really? gee - you'd never know. She's got great teeth.

sigh.

One day, not so long ago - she saw me taking out the cinnamon which is in one of those giant sized spice containers a la Costco (as is the cayenne pepper by the way) and she said to me - Mama, I don't like that stuff. You put that stuff on my thumb thumb and it was gross. Wow - she remembered.

Yesterday, in an effort to curb this frustrating (though admittedly adorable) habit - I resigned to sticking her thumb in the cayenne pepper again. For a moment I felt like I'd done something in the right direction. That maybe, just maybe we'd stop this habit before kindergarten!

Either that or she'll just learn to love spicy food.