Fingers in mouth ahh!!!

Omg! I was just asking myself this same question about a 3yob who I care for. He's been with me for over a year and he definitely has gotten better but still puts things in his mouth and licks things. I've just been repetitive with him and take the toys away that he is mouthing and throw them in the sick and say 'we don't put toys in our mouths. Yucky germs' and when I catch him licking things (like my window) I make him clean it off with a wipe (I go back after with cleaner). Like I said it has gotten better and now that I think about it, he used to always have his hands in his mouth too but I used to be on him all the time with that too and now I can't even remember the last time I had to ask him to stop.

The one bit of success other than the constant repetition, that I have had is a teething ring clipped to the shirt which the child is allowed to put in his/her mouth, lick, suck, chew on, whatever floats their boat ;) I started this with a child who was starting to bite...he had always been an extreme mouther...as soon as I started with the teething ring, he stopped biting and the mouthing decreased drastically. He needed to get those oral urges out somehow, so I gave him an outlet. It could help for some of our extreme mouthers. Not sure it would help for thumb or finger sucking though...my 3 and 5 year old suck their thumbs...nothing seems to work!

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Originally Posted by cfred

I have an 18 mos old who licks EVERYTHING!!!!! It's driving me nuts. Apparently this freaky behaviour is just for me as he doesn't do it at home. He licks and mouths every single toy he picks up. He's picked up my sandals by the door to the back yard and licked them. I've seen him licking my walls and dog dishes. I was in the fridge retrieving something for lunch and when I turned around, he was licking the fridge door. When I was sitting having a cup of tea with my feet up on the foot stool, he came over and licked my leg. It's really bizarre and I'm constantly telling him to stop licking everything. Ugh.....so gross....and weird.

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I accepted a 2.5 yob into care last summer and his Mom told me he licks walls like this all the time as if she didn't have any problem with it. I DID have a problem with it and put a stop to it. He did it when he was upset only at daycare, so for instance when he fell at the playground he ran and put his mouth on the play equipment, ewwwww, no germier place than that! I got him to stop over a couple of months of diligently making sure I told him it was bad to put his mouth on dirty places, following him closely and putting a stop to it at all times.

I had never heard of this before.