4 year old putting everything in his mouth

[HappySeven]

I seem to spend all day asking my son (4) to take things out of his mouth. It's almost like he's regressed to being a baby. It can be anything from clothes to remote controls and I don't think he's even aware he's doing it most of the time.

He's not a nervous child but his nails are down to the quick and everything seems to have teeth marks in it. There has been quite a lot of upheaval recently in that he now has a baby sister (nearly 4 months), he starts school in September and we have moved into a rental while we do up another house and I wonder if this isn't helping or whether this is a normal stage for a 4 year old?

Has anyone got any ideas of how to stop him doing this? His clothes are ruined and his fingers look sore.

put it in to the bin.

I did this to my son. his favourite cars, bits of lego, it all went straight into his mouth.

after a couple of meltdowns he no longer puts anything in to his mouth.

ps, that is from the perspective of fear of choking, which was my biggest concern.

Wow, that's quite radical. I have stripped his T shirt off him and taken things away but not binned anything yet. I've not worried about choking yet as he tends to use quite large things. It seems quite absent-minded as well and can be seconds after I told him to "take it out".

Did your son chew on his fingers as well?

Hi my daughter has started putting everything in her mouth too, especially her clothes. She has also started biting her nails. She has just turned four and is due to start school in september and has a new baby brother just turned 4 mths!!

I'm sorry I don't have any advice but he is not alone!! I don't know how many times today I asked her to take things out of her mouth!!

my ds,also 4, constantly chews on his clothes, my clothes and anything else!! puzzled by this - do they have some dental thing going on maybe at this age?? no anxiety really here - think it is a habit really - he was a very sucky baby.

At least we're not alone! I don't think my son is anxious either, icancancan, but was wondering about possible underlying anxiety. Perhaps it's just the age?

DS was also a very sucky baby so maybe it's part of that. Fingers crossed they outgrow it soon.

My DD does this too, shes 3 and I agree its like she's regressed as I really thought she would have grown out of it by now. Found her eating paper the other day, and a couple of weeks ago it was a fairy non bio liquid tab any little toy, bottle top, hair slide, ect will go straight in her gob, I take things away from her, tell her off, but she still does it. (she never had a dummy as a baby either so its not as if she is trying to replace it)