fingers in mouth

[Kodama]

DD will not take her fingers out of her mouth. I need some help with this and how to get her to stop.

[bdavis337]

The only way I can keep Mark's fingers out of his mouth is to let him have the paci all day long. So that's not really a solution, I guess.....

Mark's OT has suggested he needs major oral input, and I do notice that after he chews on his crunchy multivite or sometimes I let him have white Smarties candies (!!!!!), he doesn't work the paci out so hard, and even lets it go. I wonder if you could find something like that? The OT suggests things like Listerine breath strips, tic tacs, stuff with really strong oral sensation.

Do you think she'd be responsive to a reward concept? Like, every time you found her with them OUT of her mouth she'd get something fun but cheesy, like a sticker or trinkety whatever? I do know this wouldn't work for Mark though!

[RedOakMomma]

We tried a whole host of oral stimulation, and nothing worked for our boys. What we did in the end was use taste aversion...we put (all-natural) peppermint extract on their fingers when they went through streaks of non-stop finger sucking. Every time we did it, we'd say "fingers out of your mouth." It took several applications sometimes, but it was nice to use something that wasn't really upsetting for them--just unpleasant and overly minty.

Now it's usually enough to say "fingers out of your mouth."

[mariaz]

My son chews on everything--coats, fingers, shirt collars, crayons, everything! A chewt tube (http://www.chewytubes.com/) has really been helpful in giving him the oral stimulation that he needs.

[cj'smommy]

Originally Posted by mariaz

My son chews on everything--coats, fingers, shirt collars, crayons, everything! A chewt tube (http://www.chewytubes.com/) has really been helpful in giving him the oral stimulation that he needs.

We use chewy tubes and a Nuk brush with sour powder. He has a lot of oral motor issues. DS always has his fingers in his mouth quite often, especially when he is upset or tired. It's a soothing mechanism for him.