A HUGE Milestone

There is big news around here. BIG news. James has stopped sucking his fingers! Like TOTALLY stopped! And what's more amazing, he went 100% cold turkey.

Don't you think he looks likes Wyatt in this picture?

Let's rewind.

On January 25th, James had a dentist apt. I'd been building it up all month, billing it as the visit that the dentist is going to give me the "bad tasting finger gunk" to put on his fingers so he will finally stop sucking them. He agreed to try to stop before the visit, but that lasted about 2 hours.

According to his teacher, he never sucks them at school. Pre-school, we'd talking about how he needs to stop putting his hands in his mouth when school starts so a) he won't get major germs from all the germy kids and b) he won't get made fun of by his new friends. Apparently, it rang true with him and he was able to go cold turkey during school. But about 2 seconds after picking him up at the end of the day, fingers go right in the mouth as he sits in the back of the van. Frustrating, but totally what I expected.



This is a huge habit for James. I swear, he was sucking these fingers in utero! He's ALWAYS sucked them. Always, always. And it's an all the time thing.

But, enter the dentist. Super sweet, new dentist. A guy. A fellow baseball lover. Totally related to James immediately. He calmly sat down after the visit and showed James his x-rays. He explained that his big boy teeth were on their way. Soon baby teeth would fall out and the big boy teeth would come in. And big boy teeth last for your whole life. But, if you suck your fingers, big boy teeth can come in crooked and start to hurt your jaw. And then, the dentist has to try to fix the crooked teeth which can sometimes hurt. So, he challenged James to try to stop as much as he could, but that if he was unable to, Mom would have to paint some yucky nail polish on his fingers that would taste real bad to remind him to not suck.



That was it. That was all that was said. And it was a totally calm, soft conversation. James just listened and nodded and agreed to try to stop.

Well, I kid you not he has NOT sucked them since. Not even once! And I've tried to catch him a ton of times - but he never is! I'm so so proud of him. What a constitution! He is so determined and focused and grown up sometimes - it just blows my mind!



So, no more pictures of him sucking these fingers. I'll finally get more shots of his cute smile! We are so very proud of him!