Tue 2 Dec 2008
The Placebo Effect
Posted by Nette @ Smiling Mom under Motherhood, Thumb Sucking, eClaire
Hey, I’m over at Silicon Valley Moms Blog today talking about my newest parenting tactics. This one is possibly a bit controversial…
So, we’ve resorted to buying a nasty tasting nail polish for our daughter. She just won’t stop sucking her thumb. Don’t judge me. 
I tried, I mean really tried to do this using only intrinsic, and sometimes extrinsic motivation. We’ve tried band aids on the thumbs… We’ve tried dolls, with strings attached. We’ve tried talking to her about being a ‘big girl’. To read more head on over!
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
You are SO lucky that worked. My brother would just suck that stuff off. It goes away, eventually. They even got vinyl gardening gloves, cut ventilation holes in them, and threaded shoe laces through the bottom. They would tie crazy knots so the gloves were securely attached. My brother undid those knots in his sleep. Now that’s an oral fixation! He’s 33 now and doesn’t suck his thumb any more…although I’m not sure when he really quit.…It might have been grade school.
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Pure genius! Love it, love it. Definitely needed that laugh tonight.
December 6th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I agree, you are kinda lucky here on two counts. First — some kids will just suck the nasty taste right off and then get used to it. Second, some kids would “test” it once in a while and get past your placebo idea. But it worked, and that is fantastic. Good job in being creative.
The placebo effect is wonderful. It proves the power of belief. Keep this in mind when you are out of Tylenol or Motrin and your child has a headache or some other complaint. My daughter used to ask for medicine all the time (I almost forgot about this! Great blog post coming up now…). I started giving her a spoon full of jam. The complaints disappeared. She grew past the regular requests for “medicine” also.
Chris Thompson’s last blog post..How To Get Your Child To Listen
December 10th, 2008 at 10:24 am
any chance that stuff works on Mom’s nipples???
Momma Zookeeper’s last blog post..Leapster Digj Givaway!