“Mom, I think I want to begin silky training now,” Maddie said to me a few days ago.

“What’s silky training?” I asked Maddie.

“You know, where I practice using it less.”

“Do you want to give up your silky, honey?” I asked, pictures of kids teasing Maddie during quiet time at school dancing unhappily in my head. I know that when she started school she’d told me a couple kids had teased her about sucking her thumb while she snuggles with her silky, and though she’d told me then she didn’t care I thought perhaps things had changed and she’d become aware of “fitting in”.

“No, I don’t want to give up silky, but I want to cut back on my thumb. I have a bump on my thumb from sucking it and I want the bump to go away.”

“What did you have in mind for silky training?” I asked, intrigued.

“You know, like when I did potty training and I got candy?”

Ah, I see.

Maddie’s accepted the fact that Cora’s getting a not inconsiderable amount of candy with somewhat good grace, but I know it’s still hard. Apparently Maddie’s found a way to get back on the candy train.

So here’s the arrangement – Maddie now only snuggles her silky (which is the only time she sucks her thumb) for naptime and night-night, and in return she gets a starburst the next morning. She’s given up snuggling her silky while she watches or video, or riding in the car, or when she’s tired or on a break. I think she’s a bit surprised at how much she used to use it, but so far she’s done incredibly well – she’s had a starburst every morning since the day after this thing began. On the few rare occasions when she’s REALLY needed silky during the day, she’s held it and stroked her cheek with it, carefully keeping her thumb out of her mouth.

The bump on her thumb has not, of course, gone away, and I’ve explained that it won’t until she quits completely. But right now I’m delighted we’ve begun weaning off the thumb before the dentist stages a forced intervention.

And Maddie, of course, is delighted to have found another way to get a steady stream of candy going once more.

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