Tuesday, December 1, 2009

A break....

Just taking a break from our regularly scheduled programing (meaning pictures from our trip to Illinois) to let you know that I took Christian to the dentist this morning and he was AWESOME!!! He was completely defiant about it this morning and I think he was actually scared, but he was amazing once he got in the chair! He followed directions perfectly! And they really got to clean his teeth for real. I have been dreading this after my horrendous experience with Nathan earlier this year, but Christian always does a great job of listening to other people...he just has issues with me (aren't I lucky). This is going to sound mean, but I told him that he needed to be a good listener and that if he couldn't listen with me in the room, then I would sit in the waiting room and let him be a big boy and do it himself. He knew that I was seriously and he was perfect. I was holding his hand and he didn't even squeeze it once. I'm so proud of him!! SO PROUD!

But we also have some very sad news.
My little thumb sucker is going to have to stop sucking his thumb. Effective....immediately. I knew he needed to stop and my goal was to break the habit by the time he starts kindergarten, but we MUST do it now. The bone of his top palette isn't growing correctly and he's going to have a serious case of buck teeth FOREVER if we don't do something quickly. It's very hard to reverse bad bone growth and it's very expensive, so we've got to do this. I haven't put too much thought into how this is going to happen, so give me some pointers if you've had to go through this before. I really think that Christian is the one who needs to be willing. Right now he's just SAD about it and quite honestly I am too. I sucked my thumb forever and I know how hard it is to stop. I know what a comfort it is and I hate it that we have to do this in the middle of another move. But my goal is to keep talking about it, reminding him, praying with him, providing him comfort in other ways like snuggles, and there will probably be some bribes mixed in there too. When I mentioned putting a band aid on his thumb to remind him not to suck it, he cried. It's all just very sad, but part of growing up.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I was a thumb sucker too and when I started preschool my parents told me it was against the rules to suck ur thumb, and that was it for me. Maybe u can tell him that the school added some new winter rules and no thumb suckers allowed. I really liked school, and didn't want to break any of their rules. Just a thought. I was probably ready to give it up, because I never fought back or asked questions. Good luck!
Lindsey

Millicent said...

my sister was a thumb sucker. my parents tried everything. I think she just finally quit.
a friend of mine's younger sister had to get a metal thing put in her mouth. it was really pointy and was supposed to make it hurt her thumb...she still found a way to suck it!
I would try a sticker chart with rewards. start out small!

Anonymous said...

We are praying that Jesus will give Christian the will and determination he needs to conquer this huge challenge.
Grandmom

Anonymous said...

We are going through this with Joe right now too. He loves to suck his thumb when he is sleeping. We have just been encouraging him. The dentist told us that we should gently remove his thumb from his mouth when he is sleeping, and over time he will realize that he doesn't need it.
Good luck!
Christine

Courtney said...

oh, judy. both my girls suck their thumbs. we tried and tried to get rebekah to stop - duct tape on her finger, rewards, everything! nothing worked. she has had to wear a retainer for the past 6 months and it's solved the problem. expensive. but solved.

bailey still sucks her thumb and i haven't even bothered to try to stop her...