Kayla has been a thumb sucker since she was 3 months old. As a baby it was great – she was able to comfort herself and she was a great sleeper. But with her allergy it’s always made me very nervous. Although she reacts from dairy contact her worst reactions would come from ingestion. If she ever touched dairy with her thumb and then put it in her mouth before washing her hands it would be very bad.

When Kayla was in feeding therapy I was told by her therapist that when she’s five there is a thumb sucking program in order to get her to stop. I had hoped to avoid this step but alas we were unable to. The older she gets, the more she branches out which means the more dairy she is around without me being glued to her side (which is how it should be). And this means the higher her risk is of coming into contact with dairy and then putting her thumb in her mouth. This makes me increasingly nervous. The other reason of course is the obvious, the longer she sucks her thumb the more money in orthodontic bills we’ll have.

So…I took her Wednesday and her therapist spent time talking to her about thumb sucking. Kayla is now wearing a thumb guard. Technically we’re starting with night only but Kayla was fine having it on her first day and she actually wanted to wear it to school yesterday. Amazingly she can write with it on and she did really well with it. She went to sleep her first night with minimal complaints and slept through the night. She was great in the morning and called her therapist as requested and told her all about her non-thumb-sucking night. Once she goes 10 days without sucking her thumb at night she will get a prize. Her therapist told her she could pick any “big” prize she wanted and Kayla has request a big spider Halloween decoration. Thankfully for me I found this today and Kayla really wants it. Boy did I get off cheap.