Licking..

[Storm Bride]

I guess this is the right forum. Does anybody have any suggestions for how we can get dd to stop licking us? She's doing it to me, dh & ds1, and none of us like it. I know she thinks it's funny, but I'm not that fond of having someone with a mouthful of half-chewed carrot come up and start licking my face!

Any ideas? So far, we're pretty much just saying, "stop licking me dd, I don't like that", and fending her off. But, it seems to just make it funnier to her.

[afishwithabike]

Is there an appropriate alternative you could offer. Sounds like she is just enjoying her tongue. My DD has done the licking thing for a few weeks now. I just remind her NOT to do it with food in her mouth. We play a game with her where she'll lay on the floor and we'll offer her feet hands or other body part to lick. She just laughs and forgets about the licking.

[The4OfUs]

DS gets on those kicks sometimes, and what I've found works best, honestly, is to turn it playful for a few minutes. Like a big huge, "Ewwwwwww, DS slobber! You licked me!" and then I lick him back across his whole face. Do that for a couple minutes and after we're both in hysterics, I say "whew...that was fun, huh? OK, let's X......" and it's out of his system.

Trying to block him, or redirect him, or whatever else just resulted in him trying harder. When he's a bit older if he keeps it up I'll talk with him about personal space issues, but for now he's not even 2.5 and this works best for us.

Fortunately for me, he doesn't seem to want to do it with a mouth full of food, and he doesn't do it that often...maybe once every couple weeks.

[Storm Bride]

I'll think about that - making it more playful. Honestly, I'd just ride it out as a developmental phase, if she didn't insist on doing it with a mouthful of food. It's really, really gross! She only just started this a few weeks ago, but we're all getting tired of it.

[Canadianmommax3]

my two year old just started doing this, i thought it was kind of funny, but she hasn't tried it with chewed food in her mouth yet!!

[Storm Bride]

You know...I actually think dd did go through a brief spell of this almost a year ago (things are a little foggy, because I was recovering from a section), but she skipped the chewed carrot embellishments at that point!

Maybe I'll try licking her back, and reminding her that I don't like it when she does this with food in her mouth. I don't want to be getting upset with her when she's so obviously having so much fun...but...YUCK!!

[Magella]

When one of mine was licking (not with a mouthful of food, usually-yuck) it always seemed like saying "don't lick me" would turn it into a funny game. And I don't like being licked (I really, really don't like it!), so I didn't want to make a game out of it a la Playful Parenting (though in retrospect maybe it would've worked to be like "oh, you licked me but whatever you do don't kiss me!"). So I just ignored it completely. She'd lick, I'd move away without comment (or put her down), pretty soon she stopped. This also worked with the pinching she'd do-the more we reacted (even if it was the most gentle reaction), the more she'd do it (and it really hurt!), so we stopped reacting. We'd just put her down or move away but otherwise not react at all. We didn't ignore her, we just didn't acknowledge the licking or pinching except to move ourselves out of reach.

[Storm Bride]

sledg: That's an approach I can try, too. I haven't found that technique (quiet avoidance of the behaviour) particularly effective with dd (works beautifully with my nephew!), but maybe it will work for that specific thing. She usually comes up to my chair during dinner and starts to lick my arm. But, I can always stand up and move, if that's all that works...

[LoupdelaTerre]

Ohhhhh yeah...my kiddo does this too. lol It was funny the first 5 seconds.

We've learned words like "Limits" and "Enough". lol. I think making it playful and drawing the line at "Food in the mouth" licking will help.

[nextcommercial]

This is my husband's answer....

"Hold her snout closed".

O.K, here is mine. I tell the kids "licking is for Dogs". I make sure they don't think I mean to go lick the dogs. I mean Dogs lick....not people.

I hate to be licked. I hate it when the dogs lick me....I would hate it more if any child even my own were licking me. So, licking would be a deal breaker for me. I would put a stop to it even if it meant removing her tongue from her mouth. There are very few things that bug me this much.

[Storm Bride]

I can understand that, but it doesn't bother me that much (I hate it with dogs, though - the breath!). If she'd quit doing it with food in her mouth, I could ride it out.

Well - I think tonight, I'll tell her that she can't lick me with food in her mouth, then get up and move. If she's willing to swallow the food, then we can goof around about it a little...

[2Sweeties1Angel]

My 5 year old used to lick us up until a few months ago. Drove me INSANE because I don't like to be licked by anyone or anything. Now he licks the cat. I don't know why and as long as he's not licking me, I don't care. She's an inside kitty so I know she doesn't have anything particularly scary in her fur.