Thumbs-up to thumb-sucking?

Lot of the toddlers in Smera’s generation within my family have thumb-sucking habit. Statistically speaking, three out of the four kids in the family have or had this problem.  To be fair I am only using statistics from Smera’s paternal side of cousins.

I was not startled when Smera too found relief with this habit, whilst I was not a fan, atleast she was taking care of herself when she started teething. When relatives and others started noticing we felt the pressure of helping her to get rid of this problem. Typical sign of a parental peer pressure! We refused to bow down to it for a while – a year to be precise, but things must change now or so I thought.

I turned to internet for solution to get rid of this problem. Armed with all the google-guided knowledge, I have used multiple techniques to kick her habit – threatening, scolding, checking with her doctors, consulting other parents. Most of them tend to point to a bitter nail polish. However I was not very keen on it, as wherever I checked, the pharmacist mentioned that the child has to be at least 3 years to conduct that experiment.

During the latest of my thumb sucking anxiety bout, I walked in to a pharmacy to meet my savior. The lovely pharmacist gave me the bitter nail polish and the confidence to try it out on my little one.  I re-checked with her to make sure but was convinced with her reassuring tone ‘No problem Ma’am, this will work!’

And one day last week, I finally laid my hands on the perfect potion to cure this problem. So all excited I discussed my plans with the hubby to apply it on her thumb next morning before sending her to school. The day started on a good note, without much fuss she had her breakfast and even finished her milk, then I applied the medicine on her explaining to how it would help her.

All set we get into the car to drop her first at her school and then to meet up my friends for a coffee morning. As soon as she was buckled up in went her finger, this was the first time Smera realised what bitter taste is. A few meters into the drive everything that she ate came out, forcing me to go back to square one – home!

The problem didn’t end there, it wasn’t going to be so easy-peasy for me. God had made the prefect plan to punish me, I washed her with soap and water but the medicine did not go – it was water-resistant! Next I wanted to try the nail-polish remover but the crying child won’t even let me touch her, then I turn to google.com but all that didn’t help either or maybe I was too hassled to even browse through the pages.

Finally I filled the bath-tub with bubbles and got her to play in the water, thankfully this trick has never failed me so far and it worked when I really wanted. While she was playing I try to scrub of her thumb with some soap and water and after good 7-8 attempts the medicine was finally gone, leaving me grounded for the day and with no coffee.

This episode left a bitter taste but gave me a chance to reflect upon things and a lesson to let go of things a little – as my wiser half says ‘Have you seen any grown ups sucking thumb ?, take it easy !’