Hands in the mouth?

HotChocolate79 · July 2012

DS is obsessed with his hands and they have to be inside his mouth all the time. He is not interested in the pacifier. This seems like th beginnings of a bad habit but I am not sure how to stop it. Anyone with this issue? Is this normal? We will ask the pedi but we are not going until next week.

anonsouthernbell · July 2012

That is a hunger/nursing cue... if he isnt hungry, he mights have a strong need to suck

HotChocolate79 · July 2012

Definitely not hungry - he eats a lot, is gaining really well and this happens right after feeds too. I figured it was a need to suck, but he is not interested in a pacifier when that is offered and goes straight for the hands instead.

amandafisher · July 2012

Our DD is 4days younger than your LO...just saw pedi today and she asked specifically if we have noticed more of that so I'm guessing it is a normal thing for this age.

ARenee3 · July 2012

theresat858:
Normal. And good. Hands are harder to lose than a pacifier.

I prefer the pacifier habit myself, since I can eventually take away the pacifier.

My baby developed this habit about 10 days ago. I don't make a big deal out of it, but I do try to slip in the paci instead when she does this, and about half of the time she'll take it. I don't know what else you can do.

starrynight1658 · July 2012

Our LO has his hands in his mouth all the time, and he's definitely not hungry. Our pedi said it's completely normal developmentally and doesn't mean that they'll develop into a thumb sucker or anything.

SunAndRain · July 2012

DD has to have her hands by her face and loves to suck her thumb...when she can find it, that is (only 10 days old)

I agree that this is preferable to the pacifier. In the middle of the night she can find her hand to soothe herself. She can't find a pacifier which means crying until we would get up and figure out that is what she wants and then give it to her. Of course then when it falls out of her mouth the crying would start all over again.

I'm not concerned about her losing this habit. I had a habit of nail biting when I was young and finally put some awful tasting nail polish on them which broke that habit. I am guessing there is something similar out there we can use at some point if DD doesn't break the habit on her own.

Signed,

"Hoping to never resort to pacifiers"

Ivana_Stolichnaya · July 2012

Have you ever been around a baby before? This is totally normal behavior.

k8edgerton · July 2012

Its normal at the age of your LO to put hands in the mouth... Pretty soon it will be toes. Baby just realized that he had these awesome things... Its a self soothing/way to entertain themselves thing but doesn't necessarily mean that you have a bad habit forming. I would pop the paci in when fussy... So baby doesn't resort to hands in mouth all the time. It could mean hunger... but that is more of a first month thing and shouldn't automatically be taken as a hunger cue.

This is all according to what I have read and researched.

ItsSupaFly2U · July 2012

Yea it's normal, Lily sucks on her first knuckle of her pointer finger on her left hand...not her thumb, not her whole finger...just her knuckle...

But anyways, she does it when she just wants to suck, when she's hungry she just does it really loud.

They are fixated on their hands right now, soon it will be the feet

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