DOH!!
One of the ways that Wes and I are very similar in the way we "parent" is that we have both have always said that we wanted our kids to get rid of the pacifier early and not be thumb-suckers. The thumb sucking thing comes from when I was a kid and had a friend that would always suck her thumb, so much so that it affected her teeth. I certainly don't think there is anything wrong with other little ones sucking their thumb and having a pacifier, it was just one thing that Wes and I agreed that we would at least try with our kids (even though we both know that they really wear the pants and make the rules around the house).
We got really lucky in a lot of ways with Emma, in that she never really was interested in sucking her thumb and it (surprisingly) was a piece of cake to take away her pacifier.
But I'm thinking that Squishy is going to be a different story.
He already is almost constantly sucking his thumb. Whenever he is on his belly and after about 10 minutes of trying to roll over with all his might, he gives in and goes right for the thumb. He will actually spit out his pacifier just so he can stick his chunky little thumb in there instead. So because I opened my big mouth and said that Wes and I aren't big on the thumb sucking, we will probably be the parents of the 16 year old that still sucks his thumb. Crikey.
Parker used to suck on his index finger all the time. But with some intense dedication on our part and our daycare provider helping too, we kept pulling his finger out of his mouth everytime we saw it and then gave him something more fun to play with -- we've FINALLY broken that habit! Yay! Good luck to you!!!
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