4 Year Old Sucking on hands-YUCK!

My almost 4 year old suddenly became very oral. She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, but mostly her hands...and sometimes her FEET! I'm totally grossed out.

I find that if she has gum, she doesn't do it. So, we give her Bazooka gum, so she's not getting all of the chemicals of the new gums...and the Bazooka gum's sugar is gone within a few minutes, as we all know.

I wouldn't do hot sauce, as your child will then have an aversion to spices. Our neighbors did this for bad language with black pepper, "because it's at least edible." Now when they go to restaurants the kids freak out, when pepper is in their eggs. THAT'S healthy! (sarcasm) Maybe try something bitter on his hands? Oh! They have nail biter polish that you put on the nails and it's really biter?

My parents put socks on my hands at dinner, because I'd use my fingers to help get the peas on the spoon, instead of my knife when I was 8. It REALLY hurt my feelings and it was almost a degrading punishment....can't really explain it. Try the gum, rather than the gloves.

We just started making her wash her hands every time she puts them in her mouth, but now we are finding that she's hiding it....so I don't want to condition her to lie to me!

My 4 year old son just started this, too. First his chin/lower lip, then fingers, then whole hand and now all of his clothes. I hate that he is always wet! And seriously, just covered with spit it starts to smell. Ugh! I feel like maybe he's anxious and trying to soothe himself but yeesh. Today I put him in short sleeves b/c I am so tired of the wet, stretched out long sleeve but instead he chewed on the collar all day so it was a big wet spot from his neck to his chest. He sometimes gets his hands raw from all of the activity. Wish I had an answer to stop it! Good luck!

Have you tried making him wear gloves? The thumb guard we bought to help my son break his thumb sucking habit was basically fingerless gloves.

BTW...please keep discouraging hubby. The hot sauce will burn his skin, not just his mouth when he licks it.

It really does seem like age 4 is about when they do develop habits like that. My middle son starting biting his nails about that age, and my oldest started chewing his lips about that age as well. Maybe they start to feel some more anxiety around then? Not sure.
My sister used a product called FingerGuard (I think another response mentioned the Thumbguard as well) for my niece:
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...
It might help. I would say, like with most habits little ones have..the more attention you give the habit, the more they are likely to continue. Maybe try handing him some crayons and paper everytime you see him start to suck (if possible), or a little snack, or a book, or a Hotwheels Car..some kind of distraction usually works!

Wow - so glad to hear this is normal and so many other kids do it too! I love the gum idea! My solution has always been to offer a teether to chew on instead. (I still have a baby in the house). A lot of them my son would just bite through and I worried about the liquid that leaked out, but found Teething Bling was made of a good material. They make a bracelet and a necklace, I would send my son to school with the necklace so he wouldn't chew his shirt (he chewed the bottom so his whole belly was showing!) He has gone through several short phases of chewing and this seemed to work every time!