I have a 3 year old daughter, Josey. She sucks her thumb and carries not only one blanket but a small blanket with a bear head (she calls it baby). I would like to work on having the blanket and baby stay at home. Do you have any suggestions on how to go about working for that goal?
We let our son (almost 3) take things like blankets, fav. toys, ect. in the car -- but NOT in where ever we are going. We started this a while ago and it works really well.
My 8 year old still sucks thumb with blanket....only, in her room.
It was a process getting there. First it was only in the house. Then it was only upstairs (where the bedrooms are). Now it is her bedroom, and as far as I'm concerned she can do it indefinately there.
Once in a while when my daughter wants to bring her blanket downstairs we just talk about how tired he is and that he needs more rest. Maybe some other creative way she can associate that it's best for "him" to stay in the room or at "his" house? Just an idea. Good luck, these transitions can be more agonizing for us than the kids. Hang in there!
J.,
I wish I had some great words of wisdom for you but my daughter who will turn 7 tomorrow still carries her "baby" (she's also always called her little blanket with the bear head baby) and sucks her thumb. The blanket has never went to school, and she's gotten better about bringing it with us places (it has to stay in the car) but she still sucks her thumb and needs her baby during quite times and bed time.
We talk about quitting the thumb sucking and she says she's almost ready. Maybe by the end of summer.
I was also a thumb sucker and promise I quit sometime in grade school so I'm not too worried about her going to college with her baby and sucking her thumb. I will say taking the nuk away from my son was much easier.
Good luck!
M.
J.,
Well, it's always just been a rule for us. Puppy (that's my little guy's security blanket with a puppy head attached) stays home, and he knows that. Puppy gets to come with us when we go on long car rides or if we're going anywhere where sleeping will occur. Otherwise, Puppy stays home. If he's struggling with parting with Puppy, I give him a choice. "You need to put your puppy in your bed or on a chair." There is no choice to bring or not to bring, only which place to put him. He almost always does this without a fight. If there's a fight, then Puppy goes in the nearest chair, and he gets lugged out to the car under my arm. The fit (as most do) ends within 1 minute's time.
You're just going to have to go for it. If you want Baby and Blanket home, then that's the way it's going to be. Mommy's the boss! It may take awhile for Josey (LOVE that name, BTW), but she'll get it eventually!
Best of luck,
Amy K
We made a "new" tradition of sorts with our daughter's "lovey", once we wanted to keep it exclusively at home. I would come up with something fun that she can do. For example, our daughter loves dolls, babies, etc., so we started having her put her "lovey" down for a nap when we needed to go out for errands. She thought it was fun and really bought into it, rather than us just confronting it outright and telling her that she couldn't take it with her. Another option is to let her take it in the car, with the understanding that it stays in the car when you're out and about. Hope that helps!
