Hi ladies,

Well my darling had her first dental visit today. A morning funny. When we got up and started to get ready, she had not gotten her toothbrush, so I said, "let's brush our teeth, so we can go downstairs." She replied, "um. No no mom. I prefer not to brush my teeth this morning." I said, "well, why is that?" to which she replied, " isn't the dentist going to brush my teeth?" Yes, I said. "Well okay, why would I brush three times today; that seems silly." She did terrific! She liked the xrays and asked if they were going to squirt water then suck it out. Problem: she has a huge overbite, mostly only to one side and a very very high palate from sucking her thumb. The dentist stated that she must suck really really hard; she does and has a callus to show for it. The dentist said that most kids who are still sucking at 3 do it until 5 and go to school with kids who laugh/ridicule them for doing so. She recommended a reenforcement program. Done it. She said we could use a splint on thumb, device on mouth from orthodonist or some substance from the store on the thumb that tastes bad. Um, I politely declined the aversive interventions and said we would reschedule for 6 months. This discussion occurred in front of S. When we got to the car, she said, "I am going to quit sucking my thumb today, not tomorrow but today. I will still sleep with Cookie but will not suck my thumb." If discussed (which is rare) she always says she will stop later or she likes to suck her thumb because it makes her happy. Today, clearly she did not like our discussing it. We will see how it goes tonight at bedtime. Hope you are both doing well.