Activities with 17 month old

[Lira91]

I love coming up with activities for my 17 month old, but the problem is that she doesn't do any of them because she puts everything in her mouth/starts to chew on everything within 0.5 seconds! When the HV asks those questions like "does DD do..." and every reply is always "I do it with her but she's only interested in putting everything in her mouth." I left some paper and jumbo crayons out for her to do with DH this morning and she popped a whole one in her mouth within seconds :( how can I work around this? It's not even a case of maybe she needs to watch me do it and copy because I sit and do them with her, and I also do a lot of creative stuff on the side for my own freelancing work, so she's pretty much surrounded by it. Any advice on this? She's been like this since 4 months and it doesn't just seem to be a teething issue since it's 24/7. It makes me kind of down to not see my daughter doing those kind of fun things that I read about on these threads.

My eldest was a chewer - can't remember when she stopped but until she did everything went in her gob.

Tbh I don't think we managed much in the way of arts & crafts or indeed actual play with toys until after 2 so I just used to let her potter round looking at stuff. What does she like doing? Mine always liked real world stuff (still does) and is happiest digging in the garden or out at the playground.

I think most babies do this, it's very normal. My daughter had a phase of it aswell and still chews on some things. She is 16 months old so I said I would share some things she likes. She has a sand table that you can put anything in really, so she can play with water in it aswell. I fill up a big bowl of water and bubbles and cups and bowls. Bubbles are great. Peppa pig ball that she throws around. Play cash register by melissa and doug. She also has a dolly that she really likes to play with and animals toys!

That's good to hear, DD likes me putting the lego blocks together so that she can take them apart and knock them down she loves when I blow bubbles although when I give her wand it just goes straight in her mouth. I'll give the bowl of water a go, she's not a fan of large amounts of water because she doesn't like bathtime so it probably reminds her of that! Otherwise she likes pottering around the house since she's finally got a grasp of walking - maybe make toy trails for her? She also likes her ride along car so maybe focus on activities where she's on the move?

I was like this with dc1. With dc2 I just let him lead everything and label it afterwards to make me feel like a Pinterest mum. Pulled all the washing out of the washing machine and dragged it into the fireplace? Well that's sensory play linking to the transporting and positioning play schemas

I love that @Winkywonkydonkey 😂 DD is my second but DS is most likely on the spectrum (not confirmed) and so his play was different, but was definitely some form of play. DD mostly bites, chews and rips paper/boxes! She's also very clingy with me so can't leave her to it like I could with DS, she'd much rather bury herself in my lap when I'm working

Give her stuff that it doesn't matter if she tries to eat... Like 'paint' made with flour, food colouring and water. Or cornflour and water 'slime'.

My daughter is 15 months and still mouths everything. Drives me insane mainly because she goes through phases with it. Decided to get back into it at a farm where she was petting the animals. Had to chase her with hand sanitizer 🙈

Blended up Cheerios makes great ‘sand’. I throw in a few toy diggers for DS and he play for ages. At 17 months a few kitchen utensils for her to scoop with would work and it’s taste safe.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves that sound great, I'll try those out :)
@Ireallywantsomechips 🙈 it would be nice to be able to take our eyes off of them for a second wouldn't it!
@Temple29 I tried the kitchen utensils today and she loved them, her toy ones have been rendered useless haha.

My 17 month old loves putting stuff in her mouth but I've just started repeating what she should do with them. "crayons are for paper", "not in your mouth. Crayons are for paper". If she doesn't listen or just really wants to chew on stuff I'll take the crayons away and give her a teether.

She actively looks for paper (including books from bookshelf!!) when I get the crayons out now so I think it might be working??