Well, Little Buddy is back to sucking his thumb again. About 2 weeks ago his thumb got so dry and cracked from all the saliva, sucking, and dry cold weather, (plus, I still need to get the house humidifier up and running) that it started to bleed. It didn't do this last winter. I noticed it was getting bad but left it be thinking that if it got bad enough maybe he'd stop sucking it. Yeah, right! It got so bad that one night when he was eating corn chips, he began to cry and make a pain face and was rubbing his little thumb all over his shirt. It took me a bit to figure it out. We thought he was having a painful poop or something. Turns out the salt was getting into all the cracks and burning really bad.
I called the pediatricians office and asked the nurse if she had any recommendations. She told me that I could put Neosporin and a band-aid on it but to be careful because if he kept sucking it he could choke on the band-aid if it came off with all the saliva and suction. Then she told me that there was a good chance that he'd either start sucking the other thumb or that he'd wait til the sore one healed and go right back to it and it would just be a vicious cycle all winter.
So I got big knuckle band-aids and Neosporin and bandaged it up. It was very frustrating for him. He was used to soothing himself to sleep that way for so long he was very restless. He's keep sticking it in his mouth if he was going to sleep or sad or scared and then pull it out right away and look at it all pissed off. (It was kinda funny, am I the worst mommy ever? Oh, well.)
Before long his thumb healed and he wasn't sucking it anymore even with the band-aid off.
Then about a week ago I went in to check on him during nap time and saw him sucking away. It was very cute. I was a little happy that he found it at least for sleeping purposes. He was not sleeping very soundly when it was bandaged. Think it will be OK if this is just an occasional think he does in his sleep. Turns out usually when I go in to check on him he isn't sucking his thumb. Just once in awhile for short periods.
2 comments:
That is just the cutest picture! Poor LB with his sore thumb, glad it healed up fine.
That is such an adorable story and picture. He's just gorgeous, Val. And your title on this post made me laugh--plus it was kind of weird because I've been singing that to Bean a lot lately.
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