Is There a 12-Step Program for Toddlers?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have an addict. The Little One has discovered the joys ChapStick. I know we went through this with the Big One and it got ugly. It got to the point where she put it on so often that her lips ended up cracked and gross because I think they forgot how to hydrate themselves!

So now the cycle has begun with the Little One. This morning when I went in her room to get her up, the first words she said were “Lip… On.” In Little One speak that means she wants to put ChapStick on her lips.

It used to be that when we opened the door, she would say, “Mowning, {Big One}, mowning, Mommy.” Now she asks for ChapStick. We need an intervention!!

I guess I am going to have to be the bad guy and start rationing the ChapStick application to once or twice a day. The problem of course is that I put it on at least 20 times a day. So I am going to have to be more sly about it when I apply it. What? You thought I was going to schedule an intervention for myself, too. Heck no, but I can regulate when the Little One gets it.

Okay, so I did a quick Google search and came up with the real reason the dryness occurs, at least according to one dermatologist.

“The dryness is rarely part of some “disease.” Instead, a person starts licking their lips for no particular reason, then moisturizes, and then the cycle continues indefinitely, as saliva dries out the lips along with the act of thinking about it, and so on.” Information stolen from here.