Congratulations on the big boy milestone! That is a tough one to break for sure. He should be very proud indeed!

Congrats!

That's wonderful! Sounds like a gentle transition at just the right time. Great for both S and you :-)

Congratulations on the freedom from thumb-sucking. There is power in your knitting.

Love it - knitting as a panacea. Knew it all along. By the way, I am loving the sneak peak of Errol!

De-lurking to say I think that is the most adorable story. Sigh...I love knitting.

Wow! Good switch!

Congratulations, S; you are such a big boy!

My daughter sucked her thumb until she was 8 at which time the orthodontist asked her if she really wanted to stop and since she did want to, but couldn't do it on her own, the orthodontist put a device in the top of her mouth so she couldn't. Stopped the thumbsucking immediately, but cost a fortune. Too bad I didn't knit back then; a new blankie wouldn't have cost me $600!

What a cool trick! Congratulations to S!

That's awesome! As a "professional" thumb sucker myself (I won't tell here you HOW old I was before giving it up), I offer my boldest congratulations! I can still "taste" the "poison" that my parents applied at night to get me to stop...I'd suck harder until it was gone. Great job S!!!!!!!

Yeah, S! I lasted until I sliced my thumb while making pickles when I was 10. Sure wish I had tried gloves.

Oh, I'm so glad for you! My sister sucked her thumb 'til she was 8, and the ONLY way they could get her to stop was for the orthodontist to put this 3 pronged thing in her mouth so that if she put her thumb in, she poked her finger... of course, it also poked her tongue, too. And then, she'd done so much damage to her mouth she had to wear headgear... both around the neck and over the head. Not a fun experience. So happy S won't have (at least not as much of) that type of thing to deal with.

good job for S! let me tell you, as a mom of 3 thumbsuckers and a thumbsucker myself, that is something to celebrate....happy easter!

Knitting magic! Congrats to S on the big milestone.

That's huge! I didn't notice that my son stopped sucking his fingers until the night that he randomly did one day. That's when I realized that he hadn't done it for weeks. It took a long, long time...like 6-7 years.

That great! He looks so happy with his new blankie.

YEAH!

Hooray for S the big no-thumb sucking boy! I had one thumb sucker and it was TUFF to get her to stoppit! Basically... oh, she quit around age 9-10! Thank heaven that's behind us. And it was definitely associated with the blankies. She keeps asking me (nearly 11 now) if I can't just make her one more flannel blankie. All the others wore out. Aww.

Oh, that reminds me when I stopped sucking my fingers...I was 14 yrs old! =0( my mom tried everything she could think of until one night I just decided not to suck my fingers anymore...

Good for S! That's a real milestone ... congratulations!

Gloves to bed - that's a great idea. I'll mention it to my DD. Younger grandson (3½) is a thumb sucker & wants to stop. He has almost completely stopped while awake but the thumb still goes in the mouth when he sleeps. We've never had a thumb sucker in our family nor has my son in law so Mamaw & I have been no hel in the advice department (my former husband & grandfather of these beautiful children was a thumb sucker [at least I think I remember his Mother mentioning that when my girls were small]). And now the baby girl M (4½ months) has been sucking on her thumbs & fingers 9but not to the extent that E did - he began sucking on his left thumb [only] at a couple of weeks old - to the exclusion of all other digits. Baby M will suck either thumb & other fingers & actually seems to prefer Mommy's or Grandma's fingers & likes her binky too (but only the ones with the latex nipples not the ones with the silicon ones). We're hoping that this means she will be less hooked on the thumb. E does want to quit so that he doesn't get buck teeth but can't really control what he does when he is asleep or 90% there. The gloves are a great idea.

Bravo to S and your knitting magic! He must be a proud little big boy now. Congrats!

The GP cares about such things? sheesh...In Israel they don't even ask and most kids walk around with pacifiers for ages.
Fortunetly...Gil, never took to him thumb [and as it happens, anything else for that matter] and he through the pacifier back at us when we moved him to his own bed at age 2.5 mos. We co-shared our bed till then [that was more accidental but it worked out well for me for a while]
I guess it's good the blankie wore out, because it would have been pleasent to take it away and it also could be that S just grew out of his habbit, just as I did...when I did...[yes, I sucked my thumb]...and also consider the bright side of thumb sucking...it shows you that S knows how to calm him self down and does not need to rely on objects which could get lost in the middle of the night...such as pacifiers.
I gave in to Pacifiers with DS when he was 8 mos. old because despite my objection they used to shove them in all babies mouth at day care. I found it helped with the teething. Otherwise...DS greatest comfort from age 0-3 was my boob...I weaned b/c of Fertitily...[sigh]

ooh, I forgot, I think he deserves a nice reward for that.

Ah! The power of knitting. Congratulations!

Congratulations...and good to know. My only thumbsucker of the 4 turns three years old this week, and carries what's left of Daddy's blankie like Linus. He definitely associates that blankie with thumbsucking. I'll ask him what color blankie he wants me to knit for him. Thanks for the great idea!

Great news on the thumb sucking front! So glad it stopped without a device or (as in my daughter's case) a catastrophic event. (She broke her arm... couldn't get it into her mouth with the cast on.)

Karen, that's exactly how B stopped sucking his thumb! Check out the picture in this post. When S was having so much trouble stopping the thumb sucking, B used to actually brag about how he doesn't suck his thumb because he broke his arm when he was little (1 1/2 yrs!). I was always sure to emphasize that that was not the ideal way to give up thumb-sucking. It did work though.

Congrats to S!!! I sucked my thumb until I was in 5th grade. My parents had tried everything too- rewards, gloves, wraps, bad tasting stuff on my thumb, everything. Nothing worked. I obviously had to have some major braces and such once I was old enough. So congrats to him, I know how hard it was!

I wish I could find the study I read that linked blanket toting, thumb sucking and smell. There's a comforting relationship between the three that many children cling to. I sucked my thumb up until my mother switched out my blankie for Grandma's Blanket. Now that blanket is my daughter's, but I still enjoy sniffing it now and then. But I don't feel the need to suck my thumb.

More importantly, hooray to S!

Rock on little S! What a hard habit to break ... I think I was seven when I finally quit the habit. It was tough.! Congrats! :)

awwww yay for S! Its not easy giving up something like that!

Oh, I LOVE the bright new blankie! How sweet! And that's great that S finally gave up thumb-sucking! Tell them I said congratulations!!!

lovely story. Good on S! Guess it's the next stage in his development.

The power of knitting, indeed. :) Just de-lurking to say that I really enjoy reading your blog, and your children are absolutely adorable!

thumb sucking..... I still remember the mittens, medicine, etc. that my parents used (over 60 years ago) to try to stop my thumb sucking at night. It is easily the most unpleasant memory of my childhood. I don't know when I stopped - although after reading the comments, I realize that it may have been when I was four and broke my arm. I never suffered any orthodontic consequences - no need for braces.

None of my children sucked their thumbs, so I did not have to deal with the situation as a parent.

I was so interested to see Jenni's comment about the study linking thumb-sucking, blankets and smell. I was a sniffer too - as a child I would suck my thumb and sniff my way along the whole edge of my blankie (to me each patch had its own distinctive smell). For some reason the blankie I bonded with was a full-size adult double-bed blanket, something I am sure my mother abundantly regretted, particularly on family trips. I never heard of anyone else who sniffed - I am glad I'm not alone.

And congratulations to S.!

Oh, I love kids and blankies. I am knitting a blankie for my 15.5 year old to take to college with her, out of left over sock yarn. (See my recent post at www.sskyop2.blogspot.com, the second half of the post.) The 15.5 year old sleeps with it every night, even though it is still in production. I add squares as I finish them. I've been working on the blanket for a year now, and I still have a ways to go. It will be a wonderful home memory for her when off at college.