Live Free Learn Free Blog » Binkies <title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-content/themes/thirteen/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/xml" title="RSS .92" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/rss/" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 0.3" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/atom/" /> <link rel="pingback" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/xmlrpc.php" /> <style type="text/css"> </style> <link rel='archives' title='August 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/08/' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/07/' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/06/' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/04/' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/03/' /> <link rel='archives' title='January 2007' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2007/01/' /> <link rel='archives' title='December 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/12/' /> <link rel='archives' title='November 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/11/' /> <link rel='archives' title='October 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/10/' /> <link rel='archives' title='September 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/09/' /> <link rel='archives' title='August 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/08/' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/07/' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/06/' /> <link rel='archives' title='May 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/05/' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/04/' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/03/' /> <link rel='archives' title='February 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/02/' /> <link rel='archives' title='January 2006' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2006/01/' /> <link rel='archives' title='December 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/12/' /> <link rel='archives' title='November 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/11/' /> <link rel='archives' title='October 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/10/' /> <link rel='archives' title='September 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/09/' /> <link rel='archives' title='August 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/08/' /> <link rel='archives' title='July 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/07/' /> <link rel='archives' title='June 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/06/' /> <link rel='archives' title='May 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/05/' /> <link rel='archives' title='April 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/04/' /> <link rel='archives' title='March 2005' href='http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/03/' /> <link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/xmlrpc.php?rsd" /> </head> <body> <div id="headwrapper"> <div id="header"> <h1 id="title"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog">Live Free Learn Free Blog</a></h1> </div> </div> <div id="wrapper"> <div id="content"> <div class="post" id="post-44"> <h2 class="posttitle"><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/2005/06/16/binkies/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to Binkies">Binkies</a></h2> <p class="postdate"> June 16th, 2005 at 2:02 am (<a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/category/unschooling-life/" title="View all posts in Unschooling Life" rel="category tag">Unschooling Life</a>) </p> <div class="postentry"> <div></div> <p>Kenzie fell in love with his binky immediately. When he was only a few days old, I realized he wanted to suck 24/7, awake or asleep. So, when he wasn’t nursing, he was sucking on a pacifier. As he grew, he became no less attached to his binkies, and I made sure I carried several in my purse, just in case. When he couldn’t find a binky (they have a nasty habit of getting lost), he would chew holes in his shirt collars, bite his nails, or chomp on small toys.</p> <p>He is simply a very oral child. He is always talking, eating, or sucking/chewing on something. His mouth is constantly in motion. When he was a newborn, nursing was painful. He had no problems latching on, my nipples weren’t cracked or sore, I wasn’t infected, and still, it was one of the most painful things I’ve ever done. I would get myself and Kenzie totally ready to nurse, his head a few inches from my breast, and beg anyone who happened to be around to push his head toward me; I simply couldn’t bring myself to do it. I searched breastfeeding books for any mention of the pain I was experiencing, but no luck. Eventually, my mother, who had nursed three children, herself, watched Kenzie nursing and gasped. He was a voracious nurser; she had never seen anything like it. No wonder I was in such pain, she said. Luckily, by the time he was six weeks old, I had become numb, and all was well.</p> <p>When he first ate bananas, having had nothing but breast milk until then, I thought he didn’t like them. He screamed after each bite. After a minute or two, though, I realized he was upset because the spoonfuls weren’t coming quickly enough. There was a moment between each bite when his mouth wasn’t filled with food. So, I shoveled it in, and he was happy.</p> <p>A few months later, while he was eating Cheerios, he began choking. I hit his back several times, but nothing happened. Finally, I had to put my finger down his throat to clear the cereal out. During all this, coughing and sputtering, he was still stuffing Cheerios into his mouth, chewing them, and trying to swallow.</p> <p>Even now, when not chewing his binkies, he still uses the sucking motion of a baby. But, he does often chew them, and, unfortunately, the only type of binky that isn’t immediately destroyed by his voracious sucking and chewing has been discontinued. We have one left. There are occasionally a few offered on eBay, but they’re becoming more and more difficult to obtain. So, </p> <p>within the past year, he’s discovered thumb-sucking, though he’s not too enamored of it. He prefers to chew on small toys like those little, black Bionicle bits.</p> <p>Tonight, Kenzie and a neighborhood friend were talking to two teenagers across the street. She told them, for some reason, about his binky, and he fervently denied her accusation. "When I was three or four!" he yelled. "No! I’ve seen you with it! What was that thing in your mouth, then?" He was upset and called her a liar several times. He didn’t want these kids to know.</p> <p>Over the years, children have called him a baby. Over and over. But, that never bothered him (or me) as much as the way adults act when they see an older child with a pacifier. They say, "Aren’t you too old for a pacie? Suckers are for babies; are you a baby? Get that dirty thing out of your mouth! Don’t you know those will ruin your teeth?" Some try to take it from him. Others give him dirty looks. Almost all of them give me dirty looks.</p> <p>It amazes me that grown people think it’s okay to treat a child that way - to tease him. A child they don’t know! A child who happens to be standing in line with them at the grocery store or library. Is this normal? Usually, we tell people that it’s something he enjoys, and we see no reason to get rid of it. Sometimes, though, we just ignore them.</p> <p>Nothing helps soothe Kenzie during times of stress more than having something on which to suck and chew. Binkies are comforting to him. How dare anyone judge a seven-year-old boy who has figured out the best way to comfort himself….</p> <p>Sigh….</p> <p><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/img/200/1410/640/Binky.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://livefreelearnfree.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/binky.jpg" alt="Binky" /></p> <p></a></p> </p> <div></div> </div> </div>   <h3 id="postcomment">Post a Comment</h3> <form action="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-comments-post.php" method="post" id="commentform"> <p> <input type="text" name="author" id="author" value="" size="28" tabindex="1" /> <label for="author">Name (required)</label> </p> <p> <input type="text" name="email" id="email" value="" size="28" tabindex="2" /> <label for="email">E-mail (required)</label> </p> <p> <input type="text" name="url" id="url" value="" size="28" tabindex="3" /> <label for="url"><abbr title="Uniform Resource Identifier">URI</abbr></label> </p> <p> <textarea name="comment" id="comment" cols="60" rows="8" tabindex="4"></textarea> </p> <p> <input name="submit" type="submit" id="submit" class="submit" tabindex="5" value="Submit Comment" /> <input type="hidden" name="comment_post_ID" value="44" /> </p> </form> </div> <div id="sidebar"> <ul> <li id="meta"> <h2>Meta</h2> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/wp-login.php">Login</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/feed/" title="Syndicate this site using RSS">Entries <abbr title="Really Simple Syndication">RSS</abbr></a></li> <li><a href="http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/blog/comments/feed/" title="The latest comments to all posts in RSS">Comments <abbr title="Really Simple Syndication">RSS</abbr></a></li> </ul> </li> <li id="search"> <form method="get" id="searchform" action="/blog/index.php"> <p> <input type="text" value="" name="s" id="s" /> <input type="submit" id="searchsubmit" class="submit" value="Search" /> </p> </form> </li> </ul> </div> <div id="footer"> <p> <a href="http://wordpress.org" title="Powered by Wordpress, state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform.">Powered by Wordpress</a> · Design by <a href="http://beccary.com" title="Theme designed by Beccary">Beccary</a> and <a href="http://weblogs.us" title="Theme sponsored by Weblogs.us">Weblogs.us</a> · <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer" title="This page validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional"><abbr title="eXtensible HyperText Markup Language">XHTML</abbr></a> · <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer" title="This page validates as CSS"><abbr title="Cascading Style Sheets">CSS</abbr></a> </p> </div> </div>  <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> var sc_project=605365; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_partition=4; var sc_security="d224bf47"; </script> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://www.statcounter.com/counter/counter.js"></script><noscript><a href="http://www.statcounter.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://c5.statcounter.com/counter.php?sc_project=605365&java=0&security=d224bf47&invisible=1" alt="free stats" border="0"></a> </noscript>  </body> </html>