I know what happens to your teeth when you suck your thumb. I had a cousin that had that terrible habit for many years and it damaged her smile! She had to have braces to correct it. So I thought, What if I look up pictures on Google of what happens to your teeth when you suck your thumb and show them to Emma? I wasn't sure what the outcome would be. The pics were nasty and I worried that at 5 years old, it might be too traumatic for her. I am providing this link HERE to give you an example of what I saw.
I thought about whether or not to do it for about an hour or so. Emma came into the living room and I saw her thumb in her mouth and that was it, my decision was made! I told Emma what I was going to show her and she didn't wanna see them. I told her that it was really important that I show her what can happen. She agreed to look at them. When I showed her she was utterly disgusted! With each new picture she just gasped. I showed her the pictures of what the teeth looked like AND pictures of what can happen to your thumb from sucking on it. Emma has Eczema from sucking her thumb. Examples of what it looks like are HERE and HERE. Emma left the room in a hurry and ran to the bathroom. After a minute or two she came back in, covering her mouth and teary eyed. I asked her what was wrong. She told me that she ruined herself. I asked her what she meant and she lowered her hand and smiled so I could see her teeth. Sure enough she had a hollowed horizontal oval shape between the top and bottom teeth where her teeth should meet. I told her that she didn't ruin herself. I told her that she still has baby teeth and if she stops now, then we have a better chance of fixing it sooner. She said that she didn't want ugly teeth or sore thumbs anymore!
Needless to say, she hasn't sucked her thumb since!! I give myself a pat on the back for this one. I really thought maybe it wasn't a good idea, but it turned out better than I had imagined! I am so proud of her for making that choice to stop on her own. Even though I helped, she could have just kept doing it.
My next objective: Healing the 'Finger" sucker! Corbin is next :)
I did this same thing last night for my baby girl who just turned 4 years old. I actually just looked up "ugly" teeth, and she too was horrified. I think I may have caused a little trauma though. She kept saying don't show me anymore and then complained of a belly ache (which I thought was a result of sinus drainage, but now I'm thinking it was the awful pics! lol). Anyway, she was trying to get to sleep and she started getting teary eyed and said "mommy, I don't know how to go to sleep without my fingers..." So I told her to just try to snuggle with me on the couch (get rid of one bad habit to start another right?) She fell asleep, but then woke up in the middle of the night crying that she had her fingers in her mouth and didn't know that she did it. She was sweet as can be and I told her that it may take a while to train herself not to do it while she's sleeping but she is still doing such a great job. I do feel better about it today though, she asked for me to show her pictures again...and when she saw your daughter she wanted me to click on her pic (I think she was relieved to see a sweet little girl instead of some of the scary old men that I was showing her! lol) So thank you for this blog post. Its always nice to be able to relate with another moms story!
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