Am i supposed to stop my toddler from chewing on things?

[NewYearNewHat]

He is 18 months and I thought he would have out grown this by now.

Am I meant to teach him not to or will he outgrow it naturally?

[matana]

DS still does it sometimes and he's 2. It depends what he's chewing. I don't like him walking around with things in his mouth that are either a choking hazard or would cause him serious damage were he to fall onto it (pens, crayons and similar long, thin things) and so we come down quite hard on him with those kinds of things. Other things i'm not too fussed about, providing they're not dirty, don't belong to someone else and aren't easily broken. 18 months is probably a good time to start, but don't expect too much as they're still exploring textures to a large degree at that age.

[rrreow]

Do you mean putting things in his mouth that he isn't supposed to (like stuff picked up off the street), or chewing on toys? If it's the latter he might be teething? If it's the former it should definitely be discouraged of course.

[Iggly]

Teething? My ds went back to chewing stuff when his molars came through. So I gave him a chewy teether toothbrush thing plus firmy foods so he could get his "fix".