DD always putting things in her mouth at 3.7

[ItNeverRainsBut]

DD (3.7) is forever putting things in her mouth, the way you would expect a much younger child to do. Small toys, books, anything that she can fit in her mouth or suck or chew on. Her cuffs, any ties or bits of clothing. She ruins her jumpers by chewing on the cuffs and stretching the sleeves so much. I realise it's not a huge thing in the grand scheme of things, but it would be nice to not have things damaged by her chewing/sucking them, and also to be able to relax a bit around potential choking hazards.

Does anyone have a similar experience? Did your child grow out of it, or was there something you did to encourage them to stop?

I may be flamed for this, but i work in a nursery with 2-3 year olds, and a few of them are still prone to putting things in their mouths, we do a number of things to attempt them to stop, first a warning to stop, then a removal of item, not to be given back for a certain stretch of time, and lastly we say 'are you a baby' Usual answer is 'no' then 'well take that toy out of your mouth only babies put things in their mouths you are a big boy/girl'

I posted a few days ago about similiar issue.my ds, 3/10 ,is awlays chewing on stuff, more so recently.He chews on mainly hard toys, hard things (not his clothes). And he dribbles alot. He also likes to lick things
i wondered if his teeth where growing or something but a response i got to my thread spoke about enlarged adenoids, but that was related to the dribbling. And their dc snored whereas my ds doesn't. He denies any tooth pain and he seems happy. He's got a dental app next week so i'ii ask him. maybe some kids are a bit orally fixated or something and need to be encouraged not to do it. personally, i don't mind it, just wondering if there's a reason ?

not sure about the only babies comment. a lot of kids put things in their mouth/suck/chew because they are feeling insecure/fragile. IMO this comment can be very unhelpful. But do agree with taking item away and saying cant have it back if going to put it in mouth.

Ds did this and still just occasionally does. He is very tactile and it was something he needed to do i suppose. We stimulated his taste/touch sense in other ways with food tasting games and guess the item type games. it worked combined with removal. Eg you cant have lego if you keep putting it in your mouth. If you want lego, remember what i said about toys in your mouth.

You will get there but it seemed to take an age, before it just clicked. I know kids at high school that used to suck their sleves (sp). It happens. Annoying as it is, tis normal for some kids to be this way inclined and there is only so much that you can do. She is only young yet, it will click.

The reason that we say the baby comment is not to belittle them, but in are room it is all about praise and reward which we doing in many ways, and about being big boys and girls, it is also a major hygiene issue, fine if it your at home its just one child, but toys can pass from mouth to mouth of each of our 12 children several times a day, with no cleaning in between (we clean toys once or twice a term or if there is a sickness bug or the like). Would you like your child to chew on a toy that had previously been in 5-6 or even 11 other childrens mouths??

the principle is fine it is the wording that concerns me. No i wouldnt necessarily want my child to chew a toy chewed by the rest of the nursery. but then again i have had a child destroyed by the practises of a nursery. To the point where we are still picking up the pieces of the psychological damage that they did, in the space of 4months, 2 years later. Some children react very badly to being compared to a baby and it can cause a lot of problems. In ds' case this wasnt the main problem but was a contributory factor that when combined with the rest was very problematic.

Well i am really sorry to hear that your ds had such a bad experience at nursery. I have seen some bad nursery nurses in my time, and we look at each child individually and the wording we use is approved by parents, e.g one particular bad eater the mum told us to tell him if he didn't try his lunch then he
go to baby room so he can be fed, and much worse things.

I also don't think we compare them to babies, more like we are saying you are not a baby so this is something you don't need to do.

I can see how comparing 2-3 year olds would really be quite hurtful to some children.

I have to say sometimes when we say are you a baby, they say yes, then we look all shocked and say off to babyroom, then they squeal and giggle then with lots of tickling they decide to stay phew!!! they would cause havoc in baby room.