In fact, it can be said that 80-90% of children have this phenomenon when their babies eat their hands. The reason why babies eat their hands may be due to reducing their inner anxiety in the future or improper feeding methods by the mother. As the baby grows older, their habit of eating their hands will gradually disappear, although there are also a few who do not. At this point, do mothers worry about their babies eating their hands?
It's not bad for babies to eat their hands
A baby's understanding of the world begins with the mouth, and for babies whose brains have not fully developed, the hand is just an external object, not an organ of their own body. Therefore, babies often use their mouths to eat their hands, chew on toys, and bite on clothing corners. Parents should be happy about their baby's progress when they see them sucking their fingers. From sucking the entire hand at the beginning to skillfully sucking on a finger, this indicates that the child's brain's ability to control their own movements has greatly improved, thereby promoting coordination between the brain, hands, and eyes.
What should I do if my baby eats my hands
1. Cultivate regular eating habits in babies
For babies who have developed a bad hygiene habit of sucking their fingers, the cause of this bad habit should be identified. If it is due to improper feeding methods, the wrong feeding method should be corrected first to overcome the bad feeding habits. To cultivate regular eating habits in babies, it is necessary to achieve timed and quantitative feeding, and to control hunger and satiety.
2. Patiently correct the unforeseeable baby
Parents should patiently and calmly correct their children's finger sucking behavior. For this type of child, it is important to avoid using simple and rough educational methods, such as ridicule, intimidation, beating, scolding, and the use of binding arms or wearing finger cots as a coercive measure. Because doing so not only has no effect, but also causes children to feel pain, oppression, emotional tension, and even feelings of inferiority, loneliness, and other situations. And whenever there is a chance, babies will be more inclined to suck on their fingers, leading to a stubborn and unhealthy behavior of sucking on their fingers.
3. Understand and try to meet the baby's needs as much as possible
The best way is to understand whether the needs of children are being met. In addition to meeting the physiological needs of babies (such as hunger, cold, and sleep), it is important to enrich their lives by providing them with interesting toys and giving them more opportunities to play. We should also provide favorable conditions for babies to engage in outdoor activities and play with their friends, making their lives fulfilling and vibrant. Disperse attention from established habits, maintain a happy and lively lifestyle, and provide psychological satisfaction to the baby.
4. Teach babies to develop hygiene habits from an early age
Develop good hygiene habits from a young age, do not let babies enjoy sucking their fingers, and patiently warn them that sucking their fingers is unhygienic. It not only causes swelling and pain in the fingers, affects the development of the lower stool bones and tooth deformation, but also easily brings a large amount of dirt into the mouth, causing digestive system diseases and other infectious diseases.
5. Reward the baby appropriately
When the baby's finger sucking behavior decreases, it is important to encourage and praise them in a timely manner, and explain to the baby that this finger sucking behavior is not good.
Although it is generally not bad for babies to eat their hands, it is important to observe the effects carefully and not let the baby's excessive finger sucking affect their future health, such as affecting tooth alignment, bacteria entering the mouth and causing illness, and so on. So, mothers can learn the methods above to help their babies quit eating hands, and gradually guide them to quit the habit of eating hands.