Ted

"Don't worry Mum, I won't suck my thumb."

Shaun's a thumbsucker. I tried, honestly I did, to get him to love a suckie as a baby but that darn thumb kept finding its way into his little mouth. Now he's 3 1/2 and while he only uses the thumb briefly to fall asleep, it still bothers me. I'd hate for him to ruin his teeth because he's sucking on a body part. At our check-up in August with the dentist, Shaun allowed the doctor to get a really good look at his teeth and even clean them. We were told at that time that Shaun's teeth aren't affected at all from the thumbsucking. The doctor admitted that he wouldn't have known Shaun sucks his thumb if we hadn't told him. That's good news I suppose.

But today I caught Shaun with his only-love: his bear Ted. The house rules state that Ted and any of Ted's companions (there are many) must stay in Shaun's bed at all times. No exceptions. Okay, maybe a few... but most of the time there's no exceptions. Shaun managed to sneak Ted downstairs today while I was feeding Ian and when I caught Shaun with Ted later, he made that promise to me. No matter though, Ted found his way via air back upstairs.

With my oldest starting school in September I'd love to kick the thumb habit before then. Starting with his trigger: Ted.