Our DD (3.5) is always putting things in her mouth. It might be clothing, pens, random toys. Sometimes she’s chewing them but not always. I’m curious about whether other kids are doing this at her age. Her preschool have mentioned it to us and asked us how we want them to handle it, which I’m very grateful for. My response was, if it’s dangerous, dirty, or it doesn’t belong to her, tell her gently to remove it and distract her so whatever it is doesn’t find its way back in! Ideally, discretely. No idea if this is the best way but it felt reasonable in the moment.
We think it could be a form of sensory seeking or self-soothing and we’re looking in to getting her one of those chew necklaces for the purpose (we vaguely suspect neurodivergence for other reasons).
But, I’m curious about whether many other kids her age are still doing this regularly? I guess if it’s not connected to neurodivergence, I would’ve expected her to have grown out of it by now? We have a teething baby in the house too which may have caused things to intensify a bit 🥴