Hand eating!

[marshmallow2468]

When does the hand eating/chewing phase stop? DS (13 weeks) never has his hands out of his mouth. I sometimes hold a teething ring up and he's happy to chew on that, but doesn't have the coordination to pick it up himself or keep it there himself. The resulting dribble is going everywhere. Am I right in thinking it's a pre-teething thing?

At about 18, when they leave home...

It is a pre-teething or even actual teething thing, yes, even at 13 weeks.

It's also the beginning of exploring his world. It's the first thing he can get into his mouth. Pretty soon, everything else will go in there as well.

Put a bib on him. The dribble lasts ages.

My 12 wo dd is doing this too, and is very fussy at night. Previously she was going down around 9 pm and waking at 2 and 4 to nurse. Those days seem to be over!

DD's just rediscovered this at 27 months - gnawing her knuckles raw, sorry that's not what you want to hear, but yes pretty much throughout the whole of teething, which is a total JOY

DD (11 weeks) been doing this for a bit now. So much for sterilising everything which goes in her mouth

My 12 week old does that, I don't think she's teething either, just 'discovering' the only thing she can manage to get in her mouth at the mo. If it helps, he's prob suckling it and they say suckling is great for helping brain pathway development. He'll grow out of it, you could try a dummy instead but then you still have the same prob of having to put it back in for him... And eventually trying to ween him back off it! (My DD won't take one anyway)