kicking the habit

update: the morning after i posted this, madelyn told me that she was sorry.

me: why are you sorry?

madelyn: for biting my nails and sucking my thumb.

me: it's okay, honey.  how are you doing?  let me see your hands. (after an examination of her hands.)  wow! they look better already.  great job.

madelyn: i didn't know that it was a bad habit.  i am not going to bite my nails or suck my thumb any more.

we have a house full of thumb sucking kids.  maddux isn't officially sucking his thumb - yet - but he happily sucks on his fist more and more often.  madelyn only sucks her thumb when she is holding her stuffed bear, "friend".  mason sucks his thumb almost non-stop at times.  we know that we will have to get them to stop eventually and the dentist recommended that madelyn stop by the age of 4.

but then madelyn started biting her nails a few weeks ago.  and two weeks ago i caught her biting her toe nails.  that was the last straw for me.  i got on google and started looking for solutions because it is time to stop. 

i found an article that recommended "mavala stop", read some reviews on amazon, and decided this was worth a try.  we weren't ready to resort to removing "friend" but knew that would be a sure fire tactic for stopping.  instead i ordered mavala stop for $9.50 and added on a recommended book (berenstain bears bad habit).  there were several reviews for success with young children and a description of the taste from an adult nail biter:  "The taste is really horrible. It's like acetone (nail polish remover), bitter, rotten wood, and some sort of fish put together. It has a very chemical taste with a sweet undertone that makes for a horrible experience. The taste is also very durable and lingering. "  previously i have tried vinegar to get her to stop but that taste wasn't bad enough and i doubted that bad taste alone would persuade her to stop - until i read that review.

the book arrived first and i really think that reading it helped her to stop biting her nails, but since my goal was to get rid of the thumb sucking i still planned on using the mavala.  madelyn was excited to have me paint her nails "shiny" and has even let me reapply it.  she hasn't quite put together that the nail polish is the source of the bad taste when she puts her fingers/thumb in her mouth and i want to keep it that way.  when she complains about a bad taste when she puts her fingers in her mouth we just suggest that she not put her fingers in her mouth.  and the stuff must really taste awful!  madelyn sounded like she was trying to work up a hairball the first night she tried to suck her thumb!  it was so pitiful and so funny at the same time.  matt and i were working really, really hard not to laugh at her. 

i thought for sure that we were in for a sleepless night or two but aside from the awful throat noises she was making and a little crying she went right to sleep the first night, didn't make any sounds the second night, and just went down for night number three of no thumb sucking!  i am so excited because she is obviously able to sleep without sucking her thumb and her hands already look SO much better! 

i am really hopeful that this will help to kick her habit.  and when i was reapplying her polish today (because her nails had lost their 'shine') mason wanted me to put some on him too.  while i was tempted the product says that it is only for children over the age of three.  your day will come, mason.  love.