Hand Sucking, Fingers In The Mouth

[WImom]

I have a DCG that will be 3 in april that constantly has her hands or fingers in her mouth. It's driving me nuts. My DC is 2-5y so I expect them to not be doing this. any advice to get it to stop or am I being unreasonable.

gloves on her hands?

[SilverSabre25]

Every time you see her doing it, tell her to stop and go wash her hands. Eventually she'll get tired enough of having to stop playing to wash her hands that she'll quit doing it.

[dEHmom]

We used to get tobasco sauce on our tongues for saying bad words, much like washing mouth with soap. My mom used to paint my nails with the same or lemon juice to stop me from chewing my nails.

[BentleysBands]

P

bitter apple spray. can get it at pet stores. it's not harmful or toxic. some food stores might have it.
Or tobasco sauce or something. basically when they put their hand in their mouth it'll taste bad. they won't wanna do it.
even lemon juice works, but if they have any sores/cuts/ hang nails it'll burn.

This is horrible!

[marniewon]

bitter apple spray. can get it at pet stores. it's not harmful or toxic. some food stores might have it.
Or tobasco sauce or something. basically when they put their hand in their mouth it'll taste bad. they won't wanna do it.
even lemon juice works, but if they have any sores/cuts/ hang nails it'll burn.

Not a good idea at all - what if she rubbed her eyes - they would burn. Bad idea!

[Live and Learn]

Every time you see her doing it, tell her to stop and go wash her hands. Eventually she'll get tired enough of having to stop playing to wash her hands that she'll quit doing it.

This! The logical consequence of sticking hands in germy lil mouth is hand washing.

Baybee0585...I hope you were just kidding!...bitter apple and hot peppers....I think you might have been thinking of deer repellent for your garden..... Not a real live human being! If anybody did that to my kid I would be hopping mad.
I hope you were joking.

[VTMom]

I have a DCB who will be 5 in June and he sucks his thumb all the time. He actually has blisters on his thumb! His parents are okay with it and told him (a year ago) they would like him to stop but it's his thumb and his choice. It drives me nuts and I'd love to work on it with him, but if Mom and Dad are okay with it, I don't feel like I should.

When/if I get the green light, I'll be having him wash his hands each time I see it in his mouth.

Good luck!

[MarinaVanessa]

I have this issue recently with an 18mo. He just started it so I'm a little confused as to where this behavior came from. He's an only child and DCM has no other friends or family nearby with children that do this so I don't know why he would just start. He's not just putting his fingers and hand in his mouth, he put EVERYTHING in his mouth. EVERYTHING! He's like a mouthing 6mo.

Anyway, I talked about it with mom so I knew what I could and couldn't do and ended up just really keeping my eye on him and correcting him everytime I saw him with his hand, fingers or something else in his mouth. I correct him verbally first over and over again. Everytime I see his arm lift and head towards his mouth I just say "No Mouth" and he realizes what he's doing and stops.

If he has something in his mouth and he won't take it out I gently put my hand on his arm and say "No Mouth" and apply a small amount of pressure until he takes it out. If it's something he has in his mouth I take it from him. I don't just do it as punishment but also because I want to clean whatever it is and sanitize it. I don't always get to clean it during the day so sometimes I'll have a little box or bucket with toys that he's mouthed and so the kids will keep their eyes on him and watch him also to stop him before he actually puts a toy in his mouth because they know that I'll take it and they won't be able to play with it . This also helps.

On days that I have to repeat myself all day I brush a small amount of vinegar on his fingertips. Just enough to remind him that he shouldn't put his mouth in his hands (DCM wrote me a consent ). I did this with my daughter and DCM did this to get him off the pacifyer and off of the bottle so it seems to be working. For him though I think he just forgets because sometimes I just have to say that I'm putting vinegar on his fingers and actually just wet the brush with water and brush that on his fingers and he stops for the rest of the day ... sometimes.

[dEHmom]

hahaha, yes sorry was joking! to be honest, my 2 almost 3 yr old (my own, not daycare) has gotten back into the everything in the mouth phase. Toys, fingers, EVERYTHING. it's disgusting, but i honestly have no idea how to stop it either. I always just thought it was a phase that they grew out of my a year or so.

the bitter apple spray is what i used for my dogs to stop licking things. as a parent you can do evil things to your child like the tabasco sauce on the tongue for swear words, etc, haha, but i don't even have that in my house. no body eats it, so it would be a waste to buy it on the instance someone swore.

the only thing that works so far somewhat for my child who is putting toys in his mouth is reminding him everytime he brings it up. much like nose pickers, and nail biters, it's a habit, and they don't know they are doing it 90% of the time. So a constant reminder is necessary but how long it takes i have no idea. For my own kids, whenever their finger went into the nose, a verbal reminder, and then eventually if necessary removing their hand everytime it went there. none of my kids are nose pickers!

my bad earlier, sorry usually i put an , or a haha there. i was a little distracted on a phone call, my 6 yr old called me from school to come get her. but on the earlier note, i was informed such things as bitter apple on a bottle nipple, soother, etc was enough to stop children from using, and that was by a home program visitor through the regional health authority. so i could actually see it working. but the light bulb never came on for me to think about them rubbing in their eyes. And I see in the above post the vinegar idea is very similar. it's not soaking their hands in it, but just putting enough on there that they will taste it.

[lvt77]

when i see fingers in places they shouldnt be....like in the mouth, nose, or pants. I make them go wash their hands... I tell them only food or drink goes into our mouths....I had one kid that was a nail bitter til they bled...He eventually stopped when he spent all day going back and forth faving to wash his hands non stop, he really didnt have time to play or enjoy our lessons if he was always having to wash hands..

[nannyde]

bitter apple spray. can get it at pet stores. it's not harmful or toxic. some food stores might have it.
Or tobasco sauce or something. basically when they put their hand in their mouth it'll taste bad. they won't wanna do it.
even lemon juice works, but if they have any sores/cuts/ hang nails it'll burn.

NO that isn't safe.

[nannyde]

Make her a long sleeved oversized shirt and sew the sleeves shut. Make it a thin long sleeved shirt first so that she can still manipulate toys. If she sucks thru that then make her a long sleeved thick sweatshirt with the sleeves sewn shut.

She'll adapt to playing very easily with it on. Should only take an hour or so. It will block off her fingers and give her TIME to cope with regular life without sucking.

She needs TIME under her belt. Every time she goes to do it she will be blocked. Then SHE will see how often it is.

You can easily pop it on and off. Just take it off when she needs to grip like eating times or if you do handwriting. If she prefers one side over the other just sew shut that side and leave the other hand free.

I don't like the handwashing idea because here we have to one to one them during hand washing. It would take too much adult time.

Make sure the sweatshirt sleeves are long enough for her to extend her full fingers in them. Usually about two sizes up from their regular size.

At that age she will most likely like the soft fabric blocking after she gets used to playing with it. She will ask you for it when she gets to your house. It's very comforting to them.

[laundrymom]

I wash their hands and everyone here uses bath and body soap so there are certain scents that aren't yummy smelling. You will have to experiment with your kids. Here the lime basil is icky. Lol

[Live and Learn]

I wash their hands ...... Here the lime basil is icky. Lol

Funny!::

[Danielle]

If she's like my son (also 3), it's a comfort thing. My son does it when he's upset, uncomfortable or nervous. It's been on my mind lately b/c of the sanitary issues. When we're out in public I've been putting purell on his hands (rubbed in well of course). But I really hate to take his way to comfort himself away. My thoughts are that he's still very young and he will outgrow this. I'm thinking of replacing chewing/sucking on his fingers with something else. Something like this: http://www.chewelry.ca/index.html I'm not 100% that that's what I'll use yet. I have a friend that won one recently so I want to talk to her about how it's work with her son.