A: Baby is nine months old, and it feels like eating hands has become a habit, like eating nipples. Eat your hands to fall asleep on your own, pull out and cry... I also thought about not intervening for the time being, but I was afraid that the bigger it was, the worse it would be to correct, and it would affect my teeth and face.
B: My baby was born in the winter, at that time, she wore thick clothes, wanted to eat but could not reach, every time I took a bath, I seized the time to take two bites, laughing at the dead
C: My baby's eating hands are stuffed directly into the mouth with his whole fist
Have you ever found that babies have a common hobby - eating hands!
There are several reasons why babies eat their hands:
Physiological reflexes
Babies are born with a "sucking reflex", and if you touch your baby's cheeks or lips with your hand, your baby will turn his head to the position of his hand. This reflex helps the baby find the nipple and is a normal physiological reflex for babies aged 0 to 4 months.
Second, the period of appetite
The main task of babies during the oral period is sucking. Common manifestations are constantly eating hands, licking everything that touches the mouth, and biting everything that can be reached. After all, babies are also very boring, compared to the wonderful world of adults, eating hands seems to be the only one for small babies.
3. During teething
Babies start teething around 4 months, which can lead to excessive drooling and a penchant for chewing hard things, when babies may nibble their fingers and rub their gums to reduce itching and pain.
However, some parents are worried about "illness from the mouth", and some parents are worried about biting their fingers, growing up and eating bad hands, and so on. In fact, parents do not need to be too nervous at this point, eating hands is actually a manifestation of the baby's intelligence.
Signals of intellectual development
Babies who are 1 to 2 months old do not have the ability to open their hands on their own, so they can only put the small fist of the whole hand to their mouths and suck.
When the baby grows to about 3 months, the mother will find that the baby can only eat one "big fist" from the beginning, and finally can eat one or two fingers. This set of seemingly ordinary movements is very complicated for the baby.
The process of smoothly eating the finger requires the coordination of the sensory system and the motor system. The completion of this action is a signal of the baby's intellectual development, marking the baby's entry into the preparation stage of finger functionalization and hand-eye coordination.
2. The baby's emotions are released
After 4 months of age, babies eat hands more autonomously. Eat a pacifier and eat everything that interests you to gain satisfaction and make your baby happier. When eating hands, the stimulation obtained by the mouth can promote the baby's brain development and make the baby smarter.
PS: Usually, babies at 3 to 4 months begin to suck their fingers, reach a peak at 7 to 8 months of age, and gradually decline and disappear after 2 years of age.
Therefore, when it is found that the baby eats hands, parents should not worry too much. All you have to do is to go with the flow and not force intervention to bring psychological burdens to the baby. Secondly, pay attention to cleaning your baby's hands to reduce the spread of bacteria.
For the baby to eat hands, all parents have to do is be patient and respectful. Every baby has the right to express emotions, and eating hands is the embodiment of the baby's sense of security and satisfaction.
But if the baby is stubbornly over-sucking fingers, or there is a habit of sucking fingers after the age of 4, then parents need to pay attention.