Putting outdoor things in her mouth just because i said not to. What do i do?!

[KellyandBean]

So my almost 18 month old DD is still very oral. Inside i let her mouth pretty much anything that is safe and isn't a chocking hazard since i figure she is just exploring orally still not to mention always teething. Outside though she knows she isn't allowed to put things into her mouth since it has always been my rule. She loves to play with sticks, rocks, wood pellets & flowers really anything she can find out the ground outside. We love to spend time outside but lately is kind of is becoming a pain in the butt because she seems to think it is funny to put things into her mouth even though she knows she isn't supposed to. I always give a firm "not for your mouth" and pull the object in her hand away from her mouth. She is really smart and i know she knows what i am saying. If she goes to put it in her mouth again i pull it away and get rid of it but of course there are plenty more objects to put in her mouth all around her. Sometimes i swear she does it just to get to me like a game. Any suggestions on how i can get her to stop doing this? I'm assuming that i am just going to have to wait it out another 6 months or so until she becomes less oral but if there is anything anyone can think of that might help me now so we can enjoy more outdoor time i'd love to hear it!

[hildare]

... set her up to put something that tastes really horrible (but is safe) in her mouth? 

that's probably what i'd do.  we've totally been there/done that.  she got over that phase pretty fast but i don't trust it.  (this is also the same kid that has eaten goat poop)

my biggest fear is mushrooms. 

since dd was your kid's age, i've been teaching her that we don't touch poop and we don't touch mushrooms.  so if she sees a picture of a mushroom in a book, she thinks it is of the highest humor to touch it and wait for me to say something.  sigh.  we've been calling the cooking mushrooms "portabellas," b/c she just KNOWS something is up with that, too. 

[mamabelle]

Our son is the same way, but not quite as fixated on it.  At 18 months he definitely found it hilarious to pretend to eat things that we told him not to.  My husband would kind of freak out, which is exactly what I think the toddler is wanting (because he smiles and laughs with pride at producing this result), so I've tried to ignore it when possible (rocks, sticks, etc) and use a calm low "serious" voice for dangerous things (plants, poop, etc).  We thought once he ate something terrible tasting he'd be over the game or listen to us a bit more, but it didn't work for us (he's tasted soap at least twice and cried both times).  At 23 months, he seems to be getting over it so... yeah, you might just have another 6 months of watching and playing this pain in the butt game : )

Oh, I just remembered a good tip from our daycare provider.  If he continued to want to put something dangerous in his mouth outside, I would explain nicely and calmly that if he couldn't stop putting ____  in his mouth (or pretending to) while we played outside, we'd have to play inside in order to keep him safe (assuming we've already told him that eating unknown plants or poop will make you sick).  Then offer him a choice of playing with something else outside or playing inside.  This worked pretty well for us!