Our Finger Sucker...

Ever since Eliana was a wee little thing

she decided she LOVED sucking her fingers.

And didn't show any interest in stopping...

Even when Grandpa asked if he could suck the fingers that weren't in her mouth.

We talked to doctors, parents whose children also loved their fingers, and dentists.  We read article after article on how to get your kid to stop sucking their digits.  Some said to ignore the problem and it will go away, others recommended the yucky tasting finger nail polish, sticker charts, $150 gloves specifically designed to keep kids from sucking on fingers... we kept talking to Eliana about quitting and tried most of the ideas we came across, but nothing was working.

I was not willing to fork over $150 for gloves, so when Grandpa Nelson gave me the idea of using zip ties to keep the gloves on--I jumped on the suggestion.  Eliana was on board for about 5 minutes...

We had incentives for morning, afternoon, and evening to keep her gloves on and her fingers out of her mouth.  Some days these incentives encouraged her, other days she could not care less about shows, stickers, treats, or whatever else was offered if she kept her fingers clear of her mouth.  We started the hard-core process of no finger sucking at the beginning of October and finally in mid-December she decided to pull the plug on her little habit.  And we can all give thanks to Paw Patrol toys!  Our sweet neighbor knew our kids were really into the characters and she had toys that her kiddos no longer were interested in, so she gave them to me.  I placed them up on the refrigerator, had a sticker chart printed out, and Eliana's eyes lit up when she saw the coveted prize!  This incentive, as on-point as it was, still took 6 weeks for Eliana to earn--but she did it!  She loves her Paw Patrol toys, she loves being a big girl, and has admitted several times that she does not miss sucking her fingers.  We are super happy to have made it through this obstacle, but have noticed that her tantrums and meltdowns definitely have increased since the finger sucking has disappeared.  But each day is a new day, and now that she's been cold-turkey for two weeks, we've noticed the tantrums are lessening...a bit.  We're super proud of Eliana and know that once this little thing makes up her mind to do something, there's no stopping her.