3rd March 2008

Crack’d

posted in Uncategorized |

OmegaDotter’s march into semi-maturity goes on.

After years of co-sleeping, or sleeping in our bedroom in her little nest, and six months of intensive propaganda about being a big girl when she turned six, she started sleeping in her bedroom in January.  She has slept there since.  Oh, she occasionally does an end run by slipping into bed with us in the wee hours of the night, when we’re both so sound asleep a marching band could wander through the room without waking us up…but, on the whole, she goes to sleep there and stays asleep there and wakes up around 5:30 a.m.

This is major, major news in the Omega household.  OmegaDad and I are still stunned.  I have kept quiet on the whole affair because I was afraid of jinxing it.  It’s blissful.

The other "when you’re six" issue, though…

Well, she sucks her thumb.  Intensely.  And she claimed, for months, that she would stop when she turned six.

The problem is that we have entered a seasonal period of skin chapping.  (Springtime…and the chappin’ is easy…)  I’ve broken out my stash of the addictive Carmex and have been slathering it on, and the dotter and I have been sharing hand lotion.  On the whole, it’s much less damaging here, where we have endless humidity, compared to back in Arizona, but nonetheless, it’s that time of year.

But the thumb.  Oh, OmegaDotter’s poor thumb.  We’re talking serious chapping here.  We’re talking a thumb with skin that splits and bleeds if you look at it cross-eyed.

We’re slathering the lotion on it.  I’m continually on her case about it, and when I call her on it, she surreptitiously slips her thumb into her fist and keeps loudly sucking, giggling slyly all the while.  She’s doing much better with it than she used to, but it’s oh-so-hard for her.  And it breaks my heart to see the white, cracked skin and calluses on her little thumb.  (I don’t worry about it causing her to need orthodontia any more, because her two adult teeth in the bottom have come in crooked from the get-go, so we’ll be purchasing braces when she’s 9 or 10 anyway.)

As a person who sucked my thumb until my teens, I sympathize.  It’s not easy to break a habit that ingrained.  I’ve suggested twirling her hair.  I’d suggest biting her fingernails instead, but I was doing both as a child and nibbling those nails down to nubbins on a regular basis, so I don’t want her to deal with inflamed, bleeding, infected nailbeds, either.

Any assvice?  Nice, gentle assvice, please?  I don’t want to do the hot-sauce on the thumb routine, though I have considered just slathering it with petroleum jelly to both protect and provide a disincentive…

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There are currently 9 responses to “Crack’d”

  1. 1 On March 4th, 2008, Courtney said:

    I sucked my thumb until I was eleven, and honestly I think I had to just grow out of it. Sorry. I grew up in the PNW, though, so didn’t have the horror of the chapped thumb. Yikes. Mine was pretty sour smelling though, from being in my mouth all the time.

  2. 2 On March 4th, 2008, Blog Antatonist said:

    I don’t have any advice, I’m afraid. My oldest sucked his thumb until he was nine, and like you, I sucked my thumb into my teens. I noticed that the more we talked about it, the more he sucked it. It was stressing him out. So we just decided to make it an non-issue. The braces were a foregone conclusion anyway. It turned out that his peers accomplished what we could not.

    That said, my 7 year old nephew was a thumb sucker, and my sister was beginning to despair of ever getting him to stop. When we were home for Christmas, all of her kids marvelled at PPO’s braces. He told my nephew how much the palette expander hurt (unprompted by me) and how he has to go have them tightened every month and how much that hurts. He laid it on pretty thick about how much having braces sucks.

    Two weeks later nephew quit sucking his thumb. So, if you know anybody who’s kid has braces…..

  3. 3 On March 4th, 2008, Erika said:

    I sucked my thumb until I was 5 or 6 as well - my parents went the bribery route. When I went one week without sucking my thumb, I was allowed to pick out any toy I wanted at the toy store (there were probably some restrictions, but all I remember is that I had total freedom to choose). I had the chapped thumb/calluses situation that your Dotter has, so it was pretty obvious when I had indulged. I would do it in my sleep, so I wore mittens for a while to break that part of the habit.

    By the way, I have a friend who, at 34, still sucks her thumb. Obviously she only does it at night/in private. She had braces, and even after all these years of thumb sucking her teeth are still nice and straight. Not that I think your Dotter will be 34 and still sucking her thumb, but, you know, just as some info.

    Not sure if this helps or not, but good luck!

  4. 4 On March 4th, 2008, Lisa said:

    I’m guessing she only sucks her thumb at night and at home? I don’t know how to break a kiddo of that, but I would slather the thumb with lotion or neosporin and bandage it before she goes to school. That way her poor skin will have a chance to heal.

  5. 5 On March 4th, 2008, Jen said:

    I can’t offer any advice about the thumb-sucking, because we are still avoiding dealing with that issue (what? avoidance is a legitimate parenting technique, right?) but had to offer congrats on the end of co-sleeping! I know what a big huge hairy deal that is!

  6. 6 On March 4th, 2008, Miss Cellania said:

    I don’t think there’s anything guaranteed to work. But maybe you should stop stressing over it. Thumb-sucking is easier to take than sleeping with your parents through adulthood. And it’s better than seeing her start smoking.

  7. 7 On March 4th, 2008, Anocat said:

    Stop’n'gro? Or is that as bad as the hot sauce?

  8. 8 On March 10th, 2008, sster said:

    I’m going to jump on the don’t-stress bandwagon. I sucked my thumb (at home) until I was fifteen. At that point I decided (by myself) that I had developed other coping mechanisms for the stresses in my life. It was a moment of self-chosen maturity and I’m glad my parents didn’t impose it on me. I’m guessing that social pressures will curb it in public and it will eventually peter out on its own. And if it doesn’t? Oh, well.

  9. 9 On April 25th, 2008, Mamato3 said:

    Thank you for your blog being public so that I could read this! I have absolutely no advice, but I do have a 14 month old lil thumbsucker of my own. I was freaking because his thumb looks so hideous and scary. It’s bleeding in two places, and I was typing in the description to find out what was wrong with it. I didn’t even realize that this was a normal side effect of the thumbsucking, since he is the first thumbsucker that I have known. Thanks Again OmegaMom!! Congrats on the smooth bed transition and Kudos for you on patient bedsharing.

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