Hand eating question

[ShanaV]

OK, this might be a lame question, but how can you tell the difference between types of hand eating: hunger cue, "discovering his hands," teething? My babies have been increasing their hand eating lately, but not all of it seems like a hunger cue. Is it just by context that you can tell the difference? I.e., he doesn't start crying after a few moments of hand eating (which he otherwise does), so he's probably not hungry, and it's exploration or something?

[Knitting Mama]

He's about a month and a half younger than my Cecilia, if I'm reading your signature right. At 4.5 months Cecilia definitely spent a lot of quality time with her hands just exploring them, eating them, putting them together, taking them apart, and so on. As far as hunger cues go, how often do you nurse/feed him? At 6 months Cecilia is still quite firmly in an every-2-hours feeding mode unless she sleeps longer than 2 hours.

[Blessed1]

My 3month old seems to be doing the same thing. Her hands are always in her mouth. Sometimes I try to nurse her cuz I am not sure if she is still hungry but she usually won't take it...so I just figure she is beginning to teeth or just exploring. She also sucks her thumb when she is sleepy...so I know that cue. She eats about every 2 hours so I figure that I should keep offering randomly throughout the day when I see her hands in her mouth just in case she is hungry (growth spurt).

[marinak1977]

For DS I could tell apart his "hand eating" based on the rest of his language. If he was sounding unhappy and sucking on his hand he was most likely hungry. If unhappy and munching on his hand, or poking around in his mouth it seemed like teething. If he was happily cooing and chewing on his hand he was usually exploring. DS is a brilliant communicator though, he's really easy to understand.

[kanga1622]

Once DS discovered his hands to chew on, it was almost never a hunger cue for him anymore. He will eat EVERY time I offer to nurse but will then generally spit it back up because he was already full.

I just started waiting longer after he was chewing on his hands to see if he started getting fussy or if it was just using these new funny things as toys.

He's still a huge hand chewer/sucker now and has totally ditched his paci. He even thinks the paci is a chew toy now so we don't even bother.

I'm sure your DS will come up with new hunger cues. DS's newest one is to grab my shirt and head butt my chest. Apparently that's his way of saying he needs to get inside.

[marinak1977]

Originally Posted by kanga1622

I'm sure your DS will come up with new hunger cues. DS's newest one is to grab my shirt and head butt my chest. Apparently that's his way of saying he needs to get inside.

So cute! DS sometimes pulls my shirt down and looks inside as a way of showing he's hungry.