A Barbie Glove & a Goal

Her dentist told her that it was time to stop sucking her thumb. We knew the time was coming but we hadn't done any research into methods of breaking the habit. When you Google "stop thumb sucking" you come back with thousands of online discussions of the Pro’s and Con’s of self-soothing. You also find a wide range of products from nasty tasting gel that you paint on your child's thumbnails to these awful looking medieval torture devices that are placed over the kid's thumbs and strapped to his/her wrist. Neither of these methods sounded right for us.

For us, breaking the thumb sucking habit took on the form of a simple Barbie glove, a progress chart, clearly defined milestones & rewards (that SHE selected), and a ton of stickers. Our daughter saw Toy Story 3 and decided that she wanted Barbie & Ken dolls. That expressed desire gave birth to The Plan. If she could go 5 days without sucking her thumb she would get Barbie & Ken. She set the number of days. After Day 8 we would add the Barbie Dream House. At 15 days we branched out into the Tinkerbell fairies. And the BIG goal - 20 days - brought her 6 Disney princesses.

I took her to Target to buy the supplies for her Barbie & Ken Goal chart - foam core, markers & stickers. While we were there, we detoured by the Barbie aisle to take a quick look at the prizes that were in store for her when she reached her milestones. "Can we buy them today", she asked. GOOD TRY! But no, we only looked at the prizes and stoked the desire.

So here we are 20 days later. Breaking the habit actually took about 5 or 6 days. But she continued to wear the glove at night as she passed 5 nights, 8 night, 15 nights and her ultimate goal of 20 nights. There were really 3 keys to her success:

1.) She set the milestones (with our guidance, of course) and identified the rewards.

2.) We made it okay to fail and start again. On day 3 she asked if she could suck her thumb "just a little bit". I told her that it was perfectly okay to suck her thumb, but that we would have to start over at Day 1. She decided to continue with the glove.

3.) Family and friends embraced the glove, encouraged her along the way, and celebrated her success at each milestone.

It’s hard to say goodbye to the “little girl” elements that were so a part of our daughter. But to watch her become the type of person who sets a goal, achieves a goal & celebrates her victory – was priceless!