What do you do to discourage...

*kms*

your LO from putting EVERYTHING in his/her mouth?

My son just turned 18 months old and puts everything in his mouth.  He's always been a chewer but I kind of thought he'd be over it already but it's gotten worse.  He chews on his blocks, toys, tears and chews paper off his books, wants to chew on buttons or zippers on my shirts and hoodies, etc. It's getting ridiculous!  We had his 18 month check up this week and I asked his pedi to double check to see if his 2 year molars were coming in already.  She said no and he has all of his other baby teeth so it's not a teething issue. 

Does my kid just have a heightened oral fixation!? 

katiekate1974

Around 12 mos, we started saying, "Not food, dude." and removing the non-food obects from his mouth. Now we just say "Not food, dude." and he takes it out of his mouth. Then he says, "Not food!" Sometimes he starts to put something in his mouth, then stops himself and says, "Not food!". He does it to the dog, too. LOL

My suggestion is to just start doing something like that--every time he puts something he shouldn't in his mouth, give him a verbal cue of some sort, then remove the object. He'll start to associate the verbal cue with not putting things in his mouth. 

 

katypresson

I just tell him, "Don't put that in your mouth ..yucky!"  Or "that's not food - please don't put it in your mouth."  I started telling him these things around 1 year old.  He's soo much better now. 

*kms*

katypresson:

I just tell him, "Don't put that in your mouth ..yucky!"  Or "that's not food - please don't put it in your mouth."  I started telling him these things around 1 year old.  He's soo much better now. 

We've always told him "yucky" or "we don't chew on ___" and he just doesn't get it!  ha!  We'll try one, consistent verbal cue and see if that helps.  The kid has ruined more than a dozen books with his chewing

ACR

I say "No eat" & pull it out of his mouth. The simpler the better, IMO.

katiekate1974

ACR:

I say "No eat" & pull it out of his mouth. The simpler the better, IMO.

Not a criticism, per se, but you should consider amending the "No eat" to something using proper grammar.  Just a suggestion