Tuesday, March 9, 2010

My Kind of Parenting #2

This is kind of a silly one, but it's something that really irritates me. Again, if this is your things, by all means, keep doing what makes you happy. This is just my opinion.

Paci vs Thumb

Before my daughter was even born, I stocked up on cute little pacifiers that said "Mommy's Angel" and "Daddy's Girl". I mean, how cute can you get? Anyways, Russ and I decided that a paci was the way we were going to go. I was a thumb sucker and I had to get braces at age 11 and I had them on for 5 YEARS! 5 years, people! Thats a lotta time with metal in your mouth, but my teeth were so horribly disarranged that that's what it took.

So, Olivia was born and she gladly excepted the paci. After about 4 weeks or so, she started rooting for her thumb. Ut-oh. At 6 weeks old, she found that left thumb and the rest is history. She ditched the plastic cute thing out the crib and never looked back. *sigh*

Do I wish she would have kept the paci? Yes and No. Here's why. I cannot tell you how many toddlers... even PRESCHOOLERS I see with a darn paci in their mouth. Listen, if you have to take the thing out of your mouth to speak, its time to ditch it. Seriously. That said, I never have to deal with trying to get my child weaned off a pacifier. Plus, I think a lot of parent's use it as a "Mute Button", which is just ridiculous. Deal with your crying toddler please, don't just sick that thing in his/her mouth to shut them up. Thanks.

But, now I have to deal with my little thumb sucker. The girl loves her thumb. She does it when she's sleepy, upset, not feeling well, etc. It's definitely a comfort thing for her. I'm not even sure how you can wean a child off their thumb. Its not like you can cut it off. I guess they just do it when they're ready.
I've read a few articles by dentists that say if your child doesn't sleep with the thumb in the mouth, they have less of a chance to cause damage. Who the crap knows. All I know is that I really hope my daughter doesn't end up like me. Plus, it would save a heck of a lot of money in the future. :)

1 comment:

MamaMonki said...

First of all what a sweet picture of her.

We did the paci route. But now Davey only takes it at bedtime and when he's sick. We just started telling him if he wants his bink he has to be in bed because binkies are for bed time. Usually it's lost somewhere in the covers by morning, so I don't think it's going to be hard to completely break him of.

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