A year ago our little neighbor friend came over to the house to visit Maly. I immediately noticed a little brace on both of the girl’s wrists.
“Carter, did you hurt your hands?”
“No. They’re guards to get me to stop sucking my thumbs.”
“Oh, wow! Those are cool. Let me look at those.”
I inspected the little guards that went around her wrists and the surgical plastic that encased her thumbs. The guards are a very well thought out design and product. I made a mental note and filed it away for later retrieval.
Fast forward a year to present day. Maly has started Kindergarten and it’s about time we start working on getting her to stop sucking her fingers. Ever since she was an infant, she has sucked her middle two fingers. Over the past year, she’s scaled back to only sucking her fingers when she’s tired or stressed, and Elise and I have both been okay with that. Maly’s even admitted to us that she doesn’t suck her fingers during school, but she’s expressed an interest in quitting.
Elise and I have never pressured her to stop sucking her fingers – we’ve just asked or talked to her about it. Elise and I were both thumb suckers when we were young, so having a child that sucks on her fingers wasn’t a surprise, and we’ve recognized it as a self-nurturing and soothing ritual.
On the past two occasions that I’ve talked to Maly about the finger sucking, she’s expressed an interest in quitting, and she said she wanted the same guards that Carter used. To me, that’s a win-win. The child is willing to quit sucking her fingers, and there’s a no-brainer retail solution.
But I’m cheap, and I have a tendency to try to do things on my own. This past weekend I decided to look into those finger sucking guards. I was kind of shocked that they cost $70. I guess if you compare $70 to the cost of orthodontics to re-allign crooked teeth from years of finger sucking, the $70 pales in comparison. But $70 just seems like a lot of money for something that could be turned into a Do It Yourself solution; and a redneck one at that!
Here’s the Finger Guard kit I could buy on Amazon for $70 to help my child stop sucking her fingers:
And… here’s the Vista Mega Tuff Glove archer’s glove I could buy from Cabela’s for $7.88:
I figure I can modify my redneck finger guard with a week’s worth of 5¢ zip ties and save myself $60. And I might just use that money I’ll save and buy a nice bug zapper for the house and a two pack of sausage casings.