Old Habits Die Hard

Actually, this one died easier than I thought it would originally. Anyone who has spent much time around Dallin knows he is a huge thumb sucker. Also, they would have seen the ratty blanket he named Elmo that goes everywhere with him.  Well, at the age of 5, he has decided to stop sucking his thumb. He has not sucked it for 4 weeks now.  Here's how it went down: We make him save his own money to buy toys and it was taking much longer than he would have liked so I finally told him that is he stopped sucking his thumb for 10 days straight I would buy him a toy and if he went another 20 days after that he could get another one.  That seemed to do the trick. For the first 3 days he wore a glove on his hand and after that he didn't need it anymore. Only a couple of times he forgot but instantly remembered as soon as it went into his mouth. We told him that was OK and as long as he caught himself he wouldn't have to start over on his day counts. It wasn't long until he realized having Elmo around made it harder for him not to suck his thumb, so he asked me to put Elmo up high in the closet where he couldn't get it. He was very sad about it but said it had to be done. After Elmo was gone, he didn't wear the glove at night anymore and didn't have a problem falling asleep without sucking his thumb. This Saturday Dallin is going to pick out his second toy.  I did tell him if he starts to suck his thumb again I get to take the toys back, but I honestly don't think it will be a problem. He doesn't seem to miss it anymore. I am one happy Mom. I wasn't loving the idea of sending him to kindergarten a thumb sucker. I would like to say it was because of some awesome parenting technique of mine, but in reality all I did was offer the bribe. He wanted two new Skylanders so he figured out a way to stop sucking his thumb.  Awesome Job, Dallin!