Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Suck on This

One of the things I've learned since becoming a mother is that babies and young children stimulate themselves by sucking. It soothes and comforts them. It makes them excited and happy. After thinking about this today, I nodded to myself as I thought of the amazing body part the mouth is. Eating, drinking, talking, breathing, kissing.....the basic needs of life. And they all end in 'ing'. No wonder sucking and mouth stimulation is so important to the babies.
Something I have always done for my babies is letting them have a binky. AKA Pacifier, Nuke, Plug, MuteButton, Sucky, Beebee, etc. etc. etc.
To me it always seemed easier than letting them suck on their fingers. (Which just grosses me out completely.) Plus when the time came, I knew I could always take away a Binky, I couldn't take away their thumbs. I also hate it when babies suck on everything. Mouthers we call them. Toys dripping with slobber. And much worse. GROSS!!! Most kids will mouthe toys and stuff. That is how they learn about things. But I am against learning. Hehe not really, just mouthing. So the binky would always be given to the kid when they were trying to slobber on stuff.
My first two children gave their binkies up on their own around 8 months. The third also did. But....after a few months she found one and was stuck with it until her third birthday. Which then she gave up all by herself in order to get her birthday presents. Kid number four....well, I think I might have a problem. Only 7 more months until he is 3.



All of his binkies here with him but one. (Sad that I know how many he has huh?!?) He does pretty good during the day to not need them.. He is too the point where it is nap time and bed time only. Some days are not so good but that is usually cause Daddy isn't home to take them away. He loves them and I love him and anyhing I can do to keep him a baby longer is acceptable....Right?!?
Even if he ends up sucking on these things until he is 20. I'm more ok with that then him sucking on anything else.
Oh wait, there are 2 missing in the picture. I better go check in the car and under his bed ;)

2 comments:

Jaymi said...

I spy some chapstick.

Jenette said...

With Jennie it was easy to get rid of it---but then she became a "Mouther" However Regina is a different story. She LOVES hers. She actually has to have two to go to sleep---one to suck on and one to hold.