Yesterday we took Silas down to the General Store to get a snack and instead perhaps got the right motivation for getting Silas to stop sucking his thumb. Mr. Jim, the owner, always gives Silas a sucker for free if he asks correctly. Silas was sucking his thumb when we walked in the door and Jim started teasing him about whether the thumb was tastier than a sucker. One of our neighbors, Mr. Watkins, was sitting at the table inside chatting with Jim. He's an older man, the "paterfamilias" of a large group of Watkins around here. He lets us hunt on some of his land that touches ours at the top of the hill and has always been kind to us when we've run into him.
Mr. Watkins looked over at Silas, held out his hand and showed him where he was missing his right thumb. "If you're not careful, you'll suck that thumb right off, like I did." This had the desired effect of wide eyes, muteness, and hiding behind Christian's legs. He immediately wanted to go home and wouldn't look at anyone, especially Mr. Watkins. He was still a little traumatized when we got in the car and headed home. Traumatized = sucking thumb, so he stuck it in his mouth and leaned into me. "Are you sucking your thumb? Do you think you could suck it right off like Mr. Watkins said?" He immediately took it out of his mouth.
He's still worried about it today. He might put the thumb in his mouth when he doesn't think about it, but as soon as we bring up Mr. Watkins, it comes right out. I'm not quite sure about telling him the truth. On one hand, I don't like motivating him out of a false fear too much. But on the other hand, I foresee years of dental expenditures in our future if he doesn't stop sucking it soon. And I don't know how Mr. Watkins actually did lose his thumb. Who knows, maybe he was telling the truth.
This is great!
ReplyDeleteMine weren't thumbsuckers so I don't have any experience. But one of my friends had success with the fingernail paint made especially for this purpose. It supposedly has a horrible taste.