Relax about hands in mouth?

[sunshadow]

For some reason it drives me a little crazy when my child puts her hands in her mouth. It's the only thing I feel like I am close to losing my cool over. It seems silly when I think about it, but it drives me up a wall! It started to become an issue when the flu season was going strong because I was pregnant. I was worried about her getting sick.

The real issue is that she does this because her little friend does it. If we ask her to stop she say her friend does it so she does it. If she hasn't been around this friend for awhile she doesn't do it much, but as soon as they have had a play date she is all about putting her fingers in her mouth again. I almost want to stop the play dates, but I know that having fun with her friend is better for her than sucking her fingers is bad. I think the real issue is me constantly telling her to stop. It's the only thing I am nagging her about all the time and she has started to do it more to spite me I think.

I am mostly just venting, but if anyone has any ideas for either relaxing or getting her to stop let me know! Thanks.

[CageFreeFamily]

This too shall pass
If you are mostly worried about it resulting in illness you can largely take care of that by giving her a daily dose of probiotics, elderberry (tincture, syrup, tea, whatever) and removing sugar from her diet.

That being said, I'm onto kiddo number 3 and have had to accept that DS is going to put his finger up his nose no matter what I say, DD is going to mimick him and even if they didn't they would still be exposed to germs. It used to drive me NUTS! The best I can hope to do is boost their immune systems and have them wash their hands first thing upon arriving home from an outing.

Then repeat to youself... this too shall pass

[almadianna]

well there could be worse things to have in the mouth... like rabbit poop. dont ask me how I know.

[justthinkn]

For DD, it's not only her hands, but other random objects... I think the urge to mouth is totally normal, but we'd really prefer to re-direct her, so we got her a jazzy jewels bracelet to chew. That's going ok!

[Rowansmama]

Well DD is a hardcore thumbsucker, and I tried to fight it for awhile but now have given up since it helps her so much.

My advice to you to relax about it a bit is to make really good friends with travel wipes and hand sanitizer Whenever we're at a playgroup or other activity, I wipe and sanitize her hands several times. I'm quite anal about the germs too, but DD rarely gets sick so I figure she either has a great immune system or the wipes/sanitizing routine is working.

DD also take a daily multivitamin and extra vitamin D during sick season, which my husband and I do as well.

I figure there's not much you can do about putting things in the mouth, but you can take whatever steps make you feel better and prevent illness as much as possible.

[sunshadow]

Thanks everyone. I just needed to hear that I really do need to relax. It's hard because I swear it's like nails on a chalk board to me! Amazingly she has managed to avoid getting sick except one minor cold this winter. I think it's because she does get her multi vit, vit c, vit d, probiotics, and omega 3's every day. I may have to pick up some of that jazzy Jewels though!

[almadianna]

Originally Posted by sunshadow

Thanks everyone. I just needed to hear that I really do need to relax. It's hard because I swear it's like nails on a chalk board to me! Amazingly she has managed to avoid getting sick except one minor cold this winter. I think it's because she does get her multi vit, vit c, vit d, probiotics, and omega 3's every day. I may have to pick up some of that jazzy Jewels though!

Or maybe she has just been exposed to many things through her "hand in mouth" activities her immunity has gotten a chance to build up against everything!!!

[mamadelbosque]

My Ds1 will be 3 in march and still sucks his fingers like mad. I'm sure he'll stop eventually, so I'm not stressing over it. Maybe in another year if he's still sucking hardcore, we'll try'n stop. But at this point? Who cares!