# 3 year old chewing on everything ???



## Neldavi (Jun 28, 2005)

Ds is 3 and has all his teeth, but he's chewing on things like he's a teething toddler again. He'll chew on his fingers too, once making them bleed.

It seems like a nervous habit, and it often seems like he doesn't even realize he's doing it.

I usually tell him to stop if I notice it but I haven't made a huge deal out of it. I figure it's not good for his teeth to be chewing on plastic (plus he can do some real damage to things with his strong, sharp little teeth). And obviously breaking the skin on his hands with nervous chewing isn't a good thing.

Anyone else's kids do this? What should I do? Why is he doing this? When I ask him he just says "because I am".


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## sbgrace (Sep 22, 2004)

I don't know but I went through that here with one of my boys. He stopped. Now both are putting their fingers in their mouths. With my chewing on things guy though I really do think it was related to his 2nd set of molars the first time. Now I think the fingers in the mouth might be due to allergies. Other guy it is just a habit. One that bugs me to no end.


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## Calidris (Apr 17, 2004)

DD (3.5) went through this recently, not to break the skin, but chewing books, toys, I started tossing an old teething toy at her when ever I saw her chewing, she would usually stop, look at whatever she had been chewing and say "Oh, thanks" and start to chew the chew toy. The phase didn't last that long.


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## Neldavi (Jun 28, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Calidris* 
I started tossing an old teething toy at her when ever I saw her chewing, she would usually stop, look at whatever she had been chewing and say "Oh, thanks" and start to chew the chew toy.









That's really funny.

Yeah, I guess it's not the worst thing in the world, just seems kind of odd. I haven't heard anything about fingers in the mouth being related to allergies .. I'll look into it. Were they sucking or chewing? Or just kinda licking, or all of the above? Or does it matter?


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