Eli: Looking for his hand

In addition to swatting toys, Eli has been trying to find his hand to suck on. That would be great -- no more having to put the binky in repeatedly. Self-soothing!

As I thought about this, I realized that I think we unknowingly did things the right way (for us) with Tobey. We tried binky in the beginning and it didn't work. After a couple of months of suffering, he found his hand, then fingers, then thumb so he could self soothe. At around 4 months or so, Dr. Moore said that addiction usually sets in when he finds his thumb, that for some reason when kids suck on their fingers or a fist, they don't seem to be addicted to that later. At that we decided to try the binky again so that we can take it away later to get him off any possible addiction. By the time we tried with the binky again, Tobey could keep it in his mouth when he wants to and then also eventually put it in himself. And, as planned, we could help wean him off it whereas you can't take away his thumb!

If Eli will cooperate, I hope he can follow the same pattern. So far, he actually takes the binky better than Tobey did at this age (or maybe we tried harder since we ended up liking the binky lifestyle so much). We're a little frustrated that it keeps popping out, usually while we're driving, but it's nice to be able to "stick in the plug" when we're in a public place or when we all (including Tobey!) feel like saying, "Make it stop!".