Thumb Sucking Support Group

When I was expecting our eldest, companies were falling over backwards to give us little goodie bags with lots of samples and freebies in them. We gladly availed of these, but - having made a conscious decision not to use them - we carefully removed and disposed of any dummies contained therein. I remember throwing away the last two dummies the morning I was taken into hospital, the theory being if we didn't have one, we wouldn't be tempted to use one.

There were days I rued that decision! But in the long run, it worked out just as we had hoped. So, when youngest was expected, we went through exactly the same routine (although, for some reason, they're not so keen to give away the freebies to baby No.2!)

And then we had the scan that showed we were expecting a thumb sucker.

When you have a thumb sucker, you start to realise the advantages of a dummy. I mean, you can throw away a dummy, but you can't legally amputate a thumb.

Fast forward several years, nearly eight to be precise. We are (all) trying really hard to stop thumb sucking before a 7th birthday. Really hard. And to be fair, the thumb is mainly sought out when just going over to sleep at night, so some battles have been won. But until such times as we can get to sleep without our thumb, the war is nowhere near over.

So, the past few nights, evil mummy has painted 'the thumb' with Stop n Grow. I probably could be reported to Social Services for less!

However - it is working