I have a 21 month old little boy who has recently started sucking his fingers (3-4 at a time) when he is upset. This is driving my husband and I crazy! It's an odd behavior and he drools all over everything when his fingers are in his mouth.
The biggest problem is that it impedes communication. Most of his temper tantrums are a result of communication problems (we don't understand what he's trying to tell us). When he puts fingers in his mouth, we REALLY can't understand him and the temper tantrums last even longer.
A secondary problem with the fingers is that he puts them in his mouth when he's feeling shy. Now it seems like he's shy all the time (he used to be a very outgoing child).
How can we get him to stop this behavior?
I would highly recommend baby signing (there are videos and classes available)to help you all understand each other. It's not hard to learn some basic signs, and I believe it helps with the terrible twos immensely. Maybe it'll keep his fingers out of his mouth, too. Good luck.
Are you sure he isn't teething? My 18 month old does this and I notice its when she is teething so I give her a frozen gogurt or something to help with teething.
Holy Toledo! This drives me NUTS! Our daughter is 18 months and CONSTANTLY scuks on her fingers! As I type this,she's got almost her whole fist in her mouth! She'll put all four fingers on one hand in her mouth, and then sometimes a few from each hand! Its nasty because at this age she touches everything. I have noticed though that she does it more often when she is teething. Right now, she's cutting her canines and though two of them have poked through the gum, I can tell they're still bothering her. Is your son maybe getting his molars in? Whatever it is, at least know that you're not alone and it drives other moms crazy too!
I wonder if this is something that starts around 21 months? My daughter has never sucked her fingers and just started in the past month or so also! It is gross! We tell her that we can't hear/understand when she speaks with her fingers in her mouth (and she's a talker so that helps a little) but the rest of the time, if I pull them out she just puts them back in. Sometimes she'll even wait until one of us looks at her and then puts them in and grins, so I think it might be a control thing? Anyway, good luck and I'll be watching to see what advice you get!
Go to your library and check out "Baby Signs" by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn. It's a book on modified sign language for babies/toddlers. (Some of the signs are American Sign Language but others are not.) I started using it around 6-8 months with both of my kids. When my son was little we would have whole conversations with him signing and me saying the words he was signing. You could tell he was thrilled that I understood him! He would look out the window and make the tree sign and I would say, "Yes, there's the tree." He would make the sign for squirrel and I looked and sure enough, there was a squirrel in the tree so I said, "Oh, there is a squirrel in the tree!" He grinned from ear to ear! There are lots of signs in the book. Once my son could say the word, he quit using the sign. Studies show that children who use signs first have a great vocabulary later. My son definitely does for his age, (he's 4 now.) If your son can communicate with you better, he will be less frustrated, not to mention most signs are hand signals so that will get his fingers out of his mouth! Since he's not a baby, he will learn the signs quickly, (my daughter is 10 mos. and understands a lot of signs that I make but doesn't use many just yet.) Good luck! The book is awesome, (I bought it on Amazon and have seen it in Target.)
My son started sucking his middle two fingers in utero-he was actually born w/them up by his mouth (OUCH!). He sucked constantly & coudn't go to sleep w/o sucking his fingers & holding his lovie. He was starting to talk while he was still sucking & I'd pull his fingers out of his mouth if he wanted to tell me something. If I was otherwise occupied, I'd tell him to take his fingers out because I couldn't understand him. I just didn't listen at all until he had his fingers out. He outgrew it when we lost his lovie at the store-no lovie, no sucking. It was that quick.
It's annoying & irritating, but he will quit with time. In the meantime, I'd just continue to tell him that you're not going to listen to him until he takes his fingers out of his mouth because you can't understand what he's saying. When he pulls them out, stop what you're doing, look at him & try hard to figure out what he's saying ("are you telling me X"). Pointing sometimes helps too.
Army life is tough for little ones, have you PCSd or changed houses recently, has daddy deployed? It could just be life-related anxiety that keeps him from speaking up, or maybe just some attachment (you've got a newborn, maybe he misses your undivided attention & wishes he was still the tiny baby you carry around all the time) & separation anxiety. Did it start about the time you had the baby?
He'll outgrow it eventually!
Good luck!
