The Thumbsucker

Karis wouldn't suck on anything for the first four months of her life.

I tried,

and tried,

and tried some more to get her to take a pacifier.

She would have none of it.

By the time she hit four months I figured I was home free.

And then.....she found her thumb.

And then I tried,

and tried,

and tried to get her to take it out of her mouth.

No luck, and finally I gave up because it was nice to have something that was attached that pacified her.

At one it is adorable.

At two, it's still cute, but...

At three... well....it's time to get her to stop, and are her teeth starting to stick out?

At four, it is more than time to be done. And her teeth are definitely sticking out a little.

Plus, a friend told how her little girl played on the farm, stuck her fingers in her mouth, and got worms. Over and over again.

Uggg!!!

We will be on the farm a lot this summer.

I don't want to deal with worms.

Talking to my precious little one did nothing.

Karis does everything with gusto, including sucking her thumb.

I think I've let it go on as long as I have because I've been sick. It is a stable part of her life, and one I didn't want to disrupt along with everything else.

Her teeth did need rescued, though. So I went on the Internet.

What did we do before the Internet?

There was a plastic contraption that covered the thumb, but I wasn't too impressed by the reviews.

It chafed the hand, saliva got stuck in there and dripped out.... can we say gross? And some children still sucked on it and got out of it. It just sounded cruel.

Plus, Karis is an escape artist as well as has sensitive skin.

I moved on.

That is when I discovered the Handaid, or thumbsucker, as Karis calls it.

It said it was made of soft material, custom fit for the child's hand, non irritating, and guaranteed to work. The only times they haven't had it work was if the parent gave into the pleading cries of their child to take it off.

So I bought it - even though it had a hefty price tag. After all, dental work isn't cheap, so this was actually a bargain compared to that. And getting worms is disgusting.

We waited eagerly for it to come in the mail. Karis included.

She would ask daily if her thumbsucker was here.

When it finally came, I was the one who told her she had to wait to put on until morning.

I didn't want to deal with bedtime and no pacifier. :-) Yes, I'm a wimp, I'll admit it.

That morning there was no putting it off.

Karis brought it to me and held out her hand.

The glove is so easy to put on it didn't even come with instructions.

See?

If the ends didn't stick out a little it is actually quite stylish. Kind of reminds me of a Michael Jackson look going on, you know? The whole one hand glove thing.
And see the Velcro on the thumb part? Genius! I was wondering what would stop her from just sucking on the fabric - which is super soft and super comfortable and super light - and I found out just minutes after she had it on.

She put her mouth over her thumb.

"Uh, oh," I thought. "I'm going to have the one child it doesn't work for."

"Ow... mom this hurts my lips." Karis said as she pulled her thumb out.

See? Genius! I could kiss whoever thought of the Velcro.

Yesterday we had a few times it was a little rough, but nothing I couldn't soothe her out of with the reminder that when the habit is broken we are going to Chuck E Cheese.

She did have to wear the second one they sent along to bed because the other thumb almost made it into her mouth. But she fell asleep quickly, no problems, and slept all night.

It doesn't get in the way of anything she does, and she forgets she has it on most of the time.

And..... I can guarantee that a child can't get out of it.

Believe me, if there were a way, she would have found it by now.

I know it's only the second day, but if were to give it a product review it would get five stars.