I'm just going to tell you people straight up. My son is a thumb sucker. His daddy was a thumb sucker. All his daddy's siblings were thumb suckers. Apparently they've been thumb sucker children since the beginning of time, it was written in the bible they beget more thumb suckers and so on and so forth.
My family? We wait until we're nearly adults and we smoke cigarettes. *shrug* To each his own comfort, right? My daughter didn't suck anything. I don't do pacifiers and she never got attached to sucking her hand beyond the tiny infant stage. So, I have no prior experience with this.
When we went in for Lil' Man's ultrasound we saw a smooshy deformed looking baby …. Sucking his thumb. I know the smooshy part isn't nice to say but I was seriously concerned about the kids face, you can ask BigD. Of course now that he's out and quite obviously the most handsome boy to grace the planet I can reminisce on his ugly stage freely. I have a theory that it was just window face, 'cause when he's on the other side of our slider and smashes his face against the glass it looks just like the ultrasound shots. But my point today is that the thumb was being sucked.
Always the left thumb. Always the finger curled up over the nose. Always adorable.
I adapted. I read stuff. I accepted that this was his way of comforting himself. I enjoyed the fact that he could put himself to sleep. I realized he would stop doing it as soon as he didn't need to anymore. I'm over it. I have zero plans to "break him of it". ZERO. He really only does it when he's tired or upset.
Cut to yesterday when I noticed he has Flintstone thumb. The thumb he sucks is dark purplish red, the skin sorta of rippling and dry and sore looking. Not really swollen exactly but yeah sorta slightly swollen and definitely horrifying looking. Alright I'll just say it Sissy Hankshaw would be proud of this budding super-star of a thumb.
So I held him down to look for a break in the skin. He has, in the past, become over-zealous in his sucking and broken the skin on the top of the thumb with his lower teeth. He now has a callous ridge there that looks just like the spot my thumb ring rubs my thumb. I couldn't find any wound where his teeth rub, no damaged cuticle or sign of sliver or anything that might cause infection.
I said "Hey, Lil Man, does your thumb hurt? Is it ouchy?"
"Banyaid?" he asked me hopefully.
"Maybe, I'm asking you about your thumb," I gently prodded at his red appendage. "Is it hurting you?"
"Yes… I ouchy. I need a banyaid." he nodded solemnly. I went to get the first aid kit with him on my hip, placing him on the kitchen countertop in front of me while I tried to find some Neosporin. He pointed to one of his normal fingers and said "Ouchy, mama"
"You don't have an ouchy there!" I laughed. In the end I couldn't find the Neosporin and frankly I was worried he would just eat it off, sucking and really had no wound to put it on.
"Lil Man, I think your left thumb needs a break. What about this other thumb? Can you suck your other thumb for a while?"
"Nooooo!" He looked at me like that was a repulsive, ridiculous concept.
"I'm going to put a band aid on your ouchy thumb to remind you to give it a break, okay?" He eyed the band aid, wanting it badly and allowed me to wrap it around his purple thumb. Then he realized what that meant and hollered at me until I took it off again. I really didn't want him to suck the band aid off and choke himself in the night anyway. Of course I had to put another band aid on his hand to get him in bed.
This morning I called his pediatrician's office to speak to the advice nurse since I had researched possible causes to the problem online and had visions of amputation floating around in my head.
"Hi there. My son's a thumb sucker. He's two years old and his thumb of choice is slightly swollen, reddish purple and kinda ripply looking."
Blah blah blah the advice nurse admitted her job is to read from FAQs the doctors at the office have put together and all the information on thumb sucking was written for parents of much older children who are trying to break their habit. She's going to call my children's pediatrician and get back to me later today. But I think she thinks I'm calling because I want to make him quit when I just want to know if his thumb's going to fall off.
I mean if I have to stop him we'll duct tape a tube sock over his left arm to save the thumb but I really just want them to tell me it's fine and will clear up on it's own. I love the "leave it alone it will take care of itself" diagnosis, don't you!?
And where does our kids' Dr. get off, going on maternity leave? WTF? Who said she could have kids when we need her there at the damn office for when my son has sucked his thumb to the point of the skin breaking down?
*sigh* I'm tired. And vaguely upset. *goes outside to smoke*
No comments:
Post a Comment