*UPDATED 9/13/09*How can get my ~3 year-old to stop putting her fingers in her mouth?

[camlace]

My 3 yo daughter puts her hands in her mouth when she is anxious or nervous. We do remind her to not do it, but one thing her teacher found that is working is that she needs to stop what she is doing if she puts her hands in her mouth and she needs to go wash her hands. She does NOT like stopping the fun activities to constantly wash her hands. We have see a lot of improvement in the last month and now we can usually stop the hands from going in the mouth by warning her that she will need to go wash her hands. Also, her teachers (and us) offer alterate means of stress relief...a squishy ball, silly putty, etc. Good luck!

 

[MSSANDRA]

My DGS has started to do this a lot.
He is two and his parents have recently split so there is some stress with the family.
What works well for us is to try to have something to hand to him when his hands go in his mouth. A toy or a snack or if I am working in the kitchen just a measuring cup or such. Telling him to stop does not work well at all, I do try to keep his hands washed as often as possible with soap and water or a baby wipe but do not use hand gell on him.
Keep this whole thing low key and it will too will pass,

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

My 3 yo daughter puts her hands in her mouth when she is anxious or nervous. We do remind her to not do it, but one thing her teacher found that is working is that she needs to stop what she is doing if she puts her hands in her mouth and she needs to go wash her hands. She does NOT like stopping the fun activities to constantly wash her hands. We have see a lot of improvement in the last month and now we can usually stop the hands from going in the mouth by warning her that she will need to go wash her hands. Also, her teachers (and us) offer alterate means of stress relief...a squishy ball, silly putty, etc. Good luck!

I think that these are some good suggestions. I am going to try making her wash her hands instead of just using Purell every time she puts her hands in her mouth. We already wash her hands many, many times a day to try to reduce any germs that she might have on them (knowing that she WILL put them in her mouth).

I'm going to try the silly putty, etc. Maybe that will help. We're in Disney right now, and it took all of 3 days here before DD caught the gastro bug that is going around here. She had acute onset vomiting last night on the Epcot boat We felt so bad for her and of course we ran her right back to the DVC unit. I was so sure that she would catch this bug due to her mouthing her hands that I had actually brought Pedialite and Gatorade with us. No amount of hand washing and Lysol wiping will help if she is constantly sticking her fingers in her mouth. We really need to get this behavior to stop.

 

[Alesia]

For the love of God, the child is two years old!!!

Look, I don't mean to be harsh but, seriously, putting her hands in her mouth is not abnormal behavior for a child that age. Cut the kid some slack.

 

[Anna77]

Ok first disclaimer so no one can jump me. I'm a single woman no children. Now this may not be politically correct, but when I was a child I would put my finger down my throat and gag myself. In other words I would vomit or spit up what ever you would perfer. My parent put a drop of jalepeno extract on my fingers. It worked I'm 31 and still living.


Anna

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Bumping for update in first post.

 

[mousygirl]

what about a reward chart for not putting her hands in her mouth? You could split it into morning, afternoon, evening and then after a certain number of stars, she could get stickers or a treat.

I think kids stop listening to us when we constantly remind them of the same thing. What about a nonverbal cue when you see her hands in her mouth? I would also step up the praise whenever you see her w/o her hands in her mouth. Kids respond much better to praise then nagging.