Monday, August 2, 2010

Tongue Sucking!!!!!!

I was sitting in Relief Society (church) yesterday with Elle on my lap and the lady I sat next to glances at Elinor and goes, "Oh! She's a tongue sucker!" I'm like, "Wha?" She goes, "she is a tongue sucker, she sucks on her tongue to pacify herself."
After over 10 months of staring at this face:
a light bulb pops up above my head (or you could say a chorus of angels all went "aaaahhhh" around me -I WAS at church and all-). I said, "SO THAT'S WHAT SHE'S DOING!!" She said that most kids suck their thumbs or pacifiers, but there are a select few that suck their tongues like that. Her son used to (he did until the 2nd grade in fact).
Seriously! I didn't know such a thing existed. It never once occurred to me. The light bulb (or angels) kept it up that entire 45 minutes as things kept falling into place. You see, if you haven't spent a lot of quality Elinor time, you may not know that she won't take a pacifier, she just barely this week FINALLY drinks out of bottles, but hasn't until now, she also frequently does this sucking thing with her tongue sticking out a little. I always thought she just sucked way differently then any baby I've met and couldn't figure out devices such as pacifiers and the like. When she sucked nothing, I thought she was sucking, waiting for me to feed her. So suddenly, everything fell into place. She doesn't take pacifiers because she is happy just sucking on her tongue. The sucking of the tongue never looked like the normal sucking when she eats, but I never really gave it a second thought, but now it makes sense that it looks different. I refer to it as her "patented suck" since it is quite original looking. Babies frequently suck nothing in their sleep and stuff, but this is different then that. Elles does that too (although less frequent then most babies) and it involves more chin. She also almost always has this dark spot on the side of her tongue. Sometimes it isn't there, sometimes it's bigger, sometimes smaller. I asked Karen if that is why she gets that spot she said yes, it's a little bruise from sucking. I googled it once out of concern and after reading a few things came to the conclusion that it was a bruise from teething, but I wasn't totally happy with that answer since I noticed it months before any teething had taken place.
So anyway, I feel enlightened. Five minutes of getting used to the idea and I couldn't believe it had never occurred to me before. It makes so much sense, but like I said, I had never heard of this practice, so how can you think of something you've never heard of?

I had to add this picture cause she just looks so dang sweet. I was trying to catch her patented suck. As you can see- she has her blanket poised ready to do it.
She often likes the furry side of her kiki (or any furry blanket- yep, cookie blanket does her well-) to just touch the tip of her tongue while she is sucking. Karen said her son liked to do the same thing, but he liked satiny fabric.

So I've solved one enigma that makes up Elinor. Her one-of-a-kind suck isn't exactly one of a kind, just rare.
Love her.




FYI: if you ever google "tongue sucking" make sure you add the word "baby" cause you will get an entire other education without that simple word.
















6 comments:

Haley said...

Haha nice! No wonder she wouldn't take a binky or anything. I'm sure it's nice to finally know. She's so cute! She's so big!

Neaners said...

How interesting! I haven't ever heard of it either and as you know I am a pediatric nurse. Thanks I will pass on information. Nice for you to know. Isn't amazing that we get answers when we least expect it? That sister was inspired and knew you needed to hear it. Elle is such a cutie and thriving. Hugs!

Amy said...

I believe Scott's sister Paula was a tongue sucker and Tod says she still does it. You can't take a tongue away from a baby so it would be a hard habit to break. Glad you had enlightenment on this. Explains how content she is.

Sue said...

How funny! Weren't we calling it her sucky face in Wyoming? What a little cutie.

Emily said...

Funny Paula did it (does it). I am a little concerned that it is something I can't take away but I read that it doesn't cause teeth problems like thumbs and pacifiers, so there's that. I like to think she won't do it in public when she is a little older, but I guess we'll take it one day at a time. For now I'm fine with it.

Most likely we called it her sucky face now and then. Rob and I have usually referred to it as "she's got her suck face going". We usually only see it when she is tired or hungry or there is something in sight that she wants to suck. Stringy objects are especially popular (oh and fuzzy blankets of course). Yesterday she was sitting on a blanket on the grass at the park and she would pick grass and then hold the little blades up to her mouth and suck her tongue. It was cracking me up.

B said...

That's good about it not causing teeth problems. And that's so funny!! All this time she wasn't taking pacifiers and had that wierd spot on her tongue. Such a funny little girl!!

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