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Hands in the mouth

MamaSquishyBMamaSquishyB member
in Pre-School and Daycare

Levi is constantly sticking his fingers in his mouth and chewing on his fingernails.  How do I get him to stop?  I feel like I'm constantly saying, "Levi, hands out.  Levi, get your fingers out of your mouth.  Levi, STOP CHEWING ON YOUR FINGERNAILS!!"

Besides driving me nuts, it's so not sanitary and I know it won't be appropriate once he starts preschool in a few months.  Any ideas how I can break the habit?

Thanks!

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Re: Hands in the mouth

  • MamaSquishyBMamaSquishyB member
    imagecmeon_the_water:

    Has he been to the dentist yet?

    Yes, he went for the first time about 2 months ago. 

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  • Valerie120408Valerie120408
    DS1 sucks 2 fingers and used to bite his nails. The fingers in the mouth started when he discovered self-soothing and he still will resort to that when very tired. We have talked with him how it's not good for his teeth but having his pedi and the dentist both encourage him not to put his fingers in his mouth was helpful. We started by letting him put his fingers in his moth at bed/nap time only, which drastically reduced the time he sucked his fingers and then we worked on breaking the soothing habit. Now we remind him to keep his fingers out of the mouth and try to keep his hands busy (point to the words in books when we read to him, hold his teddy when tired, etc.). We hope he fully outgrows it one day but for now we just keep on reminding. As for the fingernails, both DS1 and DS2 went through nail biting phases and what helped us was keeping their nails trimmed very short and getting the scissors out anytime we saw them attempting to bite. I m not sure if we were just lucky but the almost daily attention to their nails seemed to help - and praising them for not biting. Sorry so long and GL.
    2007 BFP#1 MMC 12w; 2008 BFP#2 DS1; 2010 BFP#3 DS2; 2011 TTC; 2013 Pursuing DIA
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  • LoCarbLoCarb member
    Hot sauce on the fingers? Wink No advice.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
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  • christinak22christinak22 member

    imageLoCarb:
    Hot sauce on the fingers? Wink No advice.

    I think I remember my MIL telling me she put something on BIL's fingers to stop this, but I can't remember what it was. Nail polish remover maybe? That would be pretty gross.

    Warning No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
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  • MamaSquishyBMamaSquishyB member
    imagechristinak22:

    imageLoCarb:
    Hot sauce on the fingers? Wink No advice.

    I think I remember my MIL telling me she put something on BIL's fingers to stop this, but I can't remember what it was. Nail polish remover maybe? That would be pretty gross.

    LOL.  I was actually thinking maybe I'd try vinegar or something, but nail polish remover would be like 10 times worse.

    I haven't noticed any particular time he does it.  It's pretty constant.  And he's not really sucking on his fingers... it's more like licking.  He puts his fingers in just far enough to touch with his tongue and get them slobbery.  But tonight I noticed little bite marks on one of his hands.  I need to get a handle on it before it gets worse.  

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