Thumb Sucking Update

About 7 or 8 weeks ago Ella got her retainer to help her stop sucking her thumb as well as to begin to straighten her teeth where her thumb has pushed them apart and up. I wanted to send you an update on our progress. When she first got the retainer she was doing ok. But about a week or so into it, Ella realized she could take it out at night. So we would come in and the retainer would be in her hand and the thumb in her mouth...UGH!!!! This was going to be harder than I expected. We would take her thumb out and put the retainer back in. It would then stay in all night. So I thought well maybe as long as she had it in the majority of the night it would work on her teeth. But we weren't breaking this habit. I decided to consequence her for taking it out of her mouth. At first she would leave it in but stay awake until 11pm or midnight because she couldn't sleep. Then I guess she just got too tired and didn't care about the consequence. Will this ever end? Almost 2 weeks ago, something clicked. We were still taking out her thumb and putting in the retainer, but in the mornings Ella was so proud that she had left her "apparatus" (as she refers to it) in all night. She had no memory of us talking to her in the night about it or that she had even taken it out. We decided to just go with it. Since then, it seemed to have built her confidence and the retainer has stayed in all night. We never have to put it back in. I am so proud of her!

And as far as is the retainer working? I will let the pics tell the story...

 THEN

NOW

We went the orthodontist on Monday and she compared her teeth with her molds. It was unbelievable what 6 weeks did. Her teeth have come together nicely and now she is working on pushing the teeth back and down. I am excited to see how much it changes in the next 2 months. Go Ella GO!!!!!

Just for fun here is a pic of her having molds made....