Saying goodbye to thumb-sucking

Poor little Tyson has to say goodbye to sucking his thumb this week.  I was perfectly content to let him suck his thumb for many more years.  I actually love how he sucks his thumb.  It is the perfect soother as he always has it with him.  However, about a week ago I noticed a red bump on Tyson's thumb.  I thought he was just forming a callous and wasn't too worried about it, but a few days ago it got really red and swollen and developed a big puss-filled bubble.  Tyson was sucking on it more than usual too, I guess because it was hurting.  I was very worried about it since we are leaving on vacation for two weeks so I took him to the doctor.  The doctor said his thumb had become infected from sucking on it so much.  The doctor drained the infection, prescribed an antibiotic (which I never ended up giving him as it is healing on its own), wrapped Tyson's thumb in a bandage, and said his thumb wouldn't heal if he continued to suck on it.  I didn't think the bandage would last long and I was right as within a few minutes Tyson had pulled the bandage off.  I had to get creative and ended up using one of my socks.  I cut a hole in it to let his four fingers through but covered the thumb.  It would have been easier to just use children's mittens but I couldn't find any this time of year!  Tyson was absolutely hysterical about this thumb cover and we had a rough few hours, but since then he has done quite well.  He hasn't sucked his thumb for three days and the infection is healing.  His thumb will probably need another week or so to be completely better and by then the thumb-sucking habit may be over.  We'll see.