Bye bye Thumb Sucking

A few months ago (17th July) I wrote about us working with Alexander to help him stop sucking his thumb. I am pleased to report that after 2 solid months of working hard with him...

he now does not suck his thumb! Hooray! These pictures might not mean much to most people, but to James and I it is a sign of a strong kid who had tried really hard to break a habit. It is a sign of a kid who has worked with us to try and stop sucking his thumb. 

How did we do it you many ask?

In my last post I wrote about us bandaging his hands and putting socks over that. He did really well for the first few nights and then he started to take them off during the night. He started to suck his thumb again. I decided that I'd keep him up in the daytime so that he'd be more tired at night and try and go straight to sleep. That worked for the going to sleep, but unfortunately not during the night. He would wake up and take off his socks and bandages. Bummer!

During the holidays I played Lego Masters to the kids and they loved it! One of the competitors explained that he loved Lego and his parents actually used lego as a reward when toilet training. He got a piece of Lego each time he went to the toilet and he made a Lego set over the time. This gave me an idea for helping Alexander. I took him to the shops and had him choose a $9 Lego kit that he wanted to make. The deal was if he went to sleep with his bandages and socks on he'd get 1 piece of Lego. If he woke in the morning and we saw him still have them on then he'd get another piece of Lego. He was so excited!  Each night we repeated what the plan was and he would tell us what he needed to do. 

After 4 days he was so excited that he had made a little person.

For the next 3 weeks Alexander went to sleep with his bandages and socks on and woke up with them on. Each morning he was so excited to get 2 pieces of Lego. his poor hands struggled with it, being really dry and sore. But he was a trooper, just applying moisturiser at bedtime. After the 3 weeks we changed it to just wearing socks on his hands. This gave his hands some relief from the dryness. 

Again he did so so well. He went to sleep with them on each night. 1 piece of Lego earnt. only a could of times did he wake and didn't have a sock on. We think it fell off during the night but we couldn't be sure. We changed to some tighter socks so they would stay on all night and it worked a treat. 3 weeks of socks staying on. So so so proud of him!

Then came the big one. After 3 weeks of just socks on we went hands free. The first night he fell asleep with his thumb out of his mouth. 1 piece of Lego. We then told him that if he had his thumb out each time we checked on him in the night (when we went to bed, if one of the other kids woke up we'd check on him) then he would get another piece of Lego in the morning. The champ kept his thumb out!

So so so proud of him! It wasn't an easy run for him and it was such a big habit for him.
After 2 and a bit months Alexander completed his little snow Lego. 

He was a bit excited! He is loving playing with his Lego men and his snow mobile.

It worked so well we decided to try Lego as a reward with toilet training. This seems like a slower process but he is getting there.

We also did Lego with Eliza to turn her light off at night before going to sleep. After a month she turned it off on her own without us reminding her. Well done Eliza! We are so proud of you overcoming your fear of going to sleep in the dark.

And we had Daniel make a Lego racing car for sitting properly at the dinner table. Something that was really testing James' and my patience each meal time but Daniel really rose to the occasion too.

Yay for Lego and bye bye to thumb sucking.