Big Boo Boo

As of Friday, Eleanor has one less fingernail! As you'll see from these graphic photos (viewer discretion advised) she's lost the nail on her middle left hand finger. She got it caught in a door at daycare (the hinged part of the door frame) and instinctively pulled it out, therefore causing the loss of the actual nail. Michael and I both left work on Friday morning to get her in to see her primary care doctor (at our daycare provider's advice). They took some x-rays and found that there was no fracture. There was also no laceration to the nail bed which is good because that would take longer to heal and there would be more risk of infection.

We got our little one home from the clinic and did some minor first aid. We have to keep Neosporin on it and keep it bandaged at all times. One unexpected outcome of this whole experience may be that she stops sucking on her two fingers. Since she was 3 months old she has sucked on her pointer and middle fingers of her left hand. With this injury she hasn't put them in her mouth once. She's kind of like a smoker who's trying to quit though. In her moments of wanting to suck (i.e. watching TV or getting ready for bed) she kind of holds her two fingers by her mouth out of habit. Michael said, "hey if this works we could write an article for one of your parenting magazines!" Yeah, I'm sure that would go over well. I can see the headline now: "Rip out child's fingernails to stop thumb sucking - it worked for us!"