"Dumb Thumb"

As many of our friends and family know, Little Man has been a thumb sucker since he was a wee babe. He was a very mild mannered little guy. He slept like a pro, and never made a peep in the car. When we went to the store and he asked for something.... most of the time I said NO! but it was no biggie, Little Man just sucked his sorrows away. Well...... the thumb sucking got really old. He constantly sucked it. He would bonk into door knobs, fall over nothing, and never wanted to do much of anything for himself because of the thumb in his mouth. I swear he would have sucked his thumb and ate at he same time if he could have. One day it all changed. Little Man decided to quit the thumb habit. For a couple weeks prior to this he became aware when his thumb was dirty or smelled funny. He would go wash his hands just so he could suck his thumb. It was pretty dry and callused, so I put some vasoline on it and told him not to suck it because it would taste funny. That was all it took. For the next few days I put this Vasoline on his thumb and reminded him it would taste funny. We made up a sticker chart for when he went the whole day without sucking his thumb, and when he went twelve days he got to pick out a toy at the store. I wasn't sure if this would really be the end of it... but it has been since January and it has stuck. The other night I asked him if his thumb still tasted like strawberries, he said, "no." I asked what it tasted like now and he said, "It tastes like DUMB THUMB!" That is why we love our Little Man!