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Alex, at 4 years old, still sucks his thumb.

Max, at 18 months, still takes a bottle.

I KNOW!  Ok, I KNOW!

I'd hoped to get Alex off the thumb by his fourth birthday. We talked about it constantly for months. "What happens when you turn four?" "I don't suck my thumb!"  He's four years and three months old and I think the thumb sucking is getting worse. We'd whittled it down to early morning and before bed, but lately it's been constant.  It's a comfort thing, something he does when he's anxious or upset or scared or tired... And this is exactly why I haven't wanted to push him to give it up. I want him to be able to self soothe. I think it helps him to be more independant.  But dude, he's FOUR!  And his teeth, well, lets just say we're going to need to start saving for orthodontic work pretty soon. I suspect he's sucking him thumb more often now because it seems the last five months or so have been constant change and upheaval of his life; we moved, he started preschool, Mommy's gone back to work...

Same with Max, he'll drink anything but milk out of a sippy cup, but he insists on a bottle (filled with juice or milk) in the morning when he wakes up, before his afternoon nap and before bed, and since I've gone back to work, it's been "bobboo! BOBBOOO!" all day long.  And because it's his soothing device, we give in.

**As an aside, I never planned on Max really taking a bottle, he was breastfed for 13 months and I thought he'd go from breast to sippy cup.  So I've never bought bottles for him.  What he drinks out of now are three (out of the original 8) 5oz breast milk storage bottles that I used when I went to Mexico last April.  He even still uses a low flow nipple. I keep thinking it's silly to buy bottles when he won't be using them for much longer...here we are SIX MONTHS LATER!**

It is my personal opinion that aside from orthodontic concerns, thumb sucking and bottle drinking aren't hurting anyone here.  And it is also my personal opinion that forcing my children to give up their soothing habits would be worse than letting them hold on to them a little bit longer.  And I won't deny that it is much easier for us to pop a bottle into Max's cry-hole or let Alex fume in timeout with his blankie and thumb than fight about it with them.

I think once life settles down for us we'll try a little harder to encourage the boys to find other ways to self soothe.  Until then, yes, my preschooler is a thumb sucker and my toddler runs around with a bottle in his mouth just like Suri Cruise.

Comments

[AndreAnna]

Charlotte took a pacifier until she was just shy of three and Saywer is 18 months old and still takes a bottle but only at night. It's the ONLY way he'll drink milk. If I try to put it in a sippy, he won't drink it.

And considering he's like 11 feet tall already and only 23 lbs, the boy needs all the fat he can get. My mother is actually mad at me that I took away his daytime bottles because she thinks he's too skinny.

Damned if we do, damned if we don't.

[Jennifer]

You know what's weird is that we pulled the pacifier from Zach when he was just about a year old - and he was totally fine with it... but NOW? All of a sudden, I've been catching him sucking on his thumb more and more. Totally out of the blue. Makes me wonder if his molars are coming in. I mean he NEVER EVER used to suck his thumb! (I joke with him that I'm going to eat his thumb because if he's sucking on it, it must mean it tastes good. He gets really mad when I say that. LOL I probably should stop before I give his future therapist even more to blame me for) ;)