My son just turned 2 and still puts EVERYTHING in his mouth

HELP! My son has always been very oral, but I just chalked it up to teething. I know we're now expecting the 2yr molars, but it is getting dangerously worse, especially outside...he just turned 2, and will still put toys, dirt, dog bones, rocks, etc.......and this morning he actually tried to lick the outside ground! What was scary, is that I just emptied the hot tub and cleaned it with X14 and bleach! He wanted to lick the dirty ground with those chemicals on it!

I'm afraid to let him out of my sight for 2 seconds. "No" , timeouts, putting a binky in his mouth when outside.....teething gels, popsicles, positive vs negative reactions......I've tried it all. I'm tempted to put tabasco on the next object! HELP! SHouldn't he be outgrowing this by now? Suggestions please!

posted July 30, 2008 - 8:31pm

Comments

Onyx wrote 17 weeks 4 days ago

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sugarsnaptastic wrote 17 weeks 1 day ago

My daughter is very oral as well. She is 6 now, and still has days where everything goes in her mouth. One thing I found with my daughter was that she got orally fixated when she was hungry. We started to ignore the mouthing of objects and would often give her a drink of water.

Children can be oral for quite some time. Children mouth objects for many reasons beyond teething. You may want to talk to your Dr. about this since your son is going for dirt and rocks. This could be Pica, a disorder caused by some biochemical deficiency. Children also mouth things for comfort.

Coming from my child development and parent education background I would advise you against using the tabasco sauce. This isn't really going to teach him anything except that mommy hurts him when he puts something in his mouth. It is seen by some as physical abuse because hot saucing can cause esophageal burns, swollen tongues and is a possible choking hazard.

One thing to always remember with young children when trying to break a habit, make sure you give them something appropriate to do in place of the undesired behavior. That's true for adults too. So, let him know what he can suck on when he goes for the rock.

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