The last few weeks my daughter has decided to put her finger down her throat. She is almost one. She of course would gage. I would tell her no and she would keep doing it. Well, last night during dinner she was doing this. She ended up throwing up all her dinner. She did it about a dozen times. I don't know what to do. I told her no and grabbed her hands about a dozen times and she just kept doing it. At one point she thought it was funny. So I cleaned her all up after she was finally done. Has anyone else had this problem? How did you handle it?
Hi L.,
Yes my son has done this. He is almost 2 years old and starting putting his finger in his throat a few months back. I just try to ignore it and not make it a big deal. he has never thrown up from it though just gag a little. Sometimes when he is looking for attention I notice him doing it. For the most part it has stopped. Try to ignore it when she does it, and it to will pass.
Kids at this age are exploring their bodies, and unfortunately this is part of it. They've also figured out how to influence adults around them - this is also part of it. I agree with the other posters - ignore her and she'll stop once it loses the thrill.
My daughter did this at about that age. The advice I got was to ignore it. When she realized she would not get attention for it, she stopped. It is awful though, isn't it?
I hate pukey noises so it turned my stomach every time she did it..YUCK!
My son did the same thing at the same age ... he discovered a new thing he could do. When he got a rise out of me, he giggled. I agree with the other response - ignore it. She will stop.
My son does this now - he's 13 months. I just ignore it and he stops, whereas my husband tells him to stop(he can't ignore it), and he keeps doing it. They are doing it for attention, so ignore it as best you can and she'll stop. Good luck!
My daughter used to do it all the time, the ped said she was probably getting her molars in the back. I usually did nothing about it unless she choked herself and then I would just say "be careful honey" and it seemed to stop each time.
My daughter did the same thing from about the time she turned one until she was two. It was horrible having to listen to that gagging sound!! I had one lady at the mall ask me if she was okay. Talk about embarrassing! Anyway, what I would do was just pull her hand away from her mouth and not look at her. I realized after a while that she was doing it for attention. She wouldn't do it as much, but she would still do it. It's just something that she finally stopped doing after she turned two.
I must say I could not help but think of my daughter why reading this. I do not know what ot was but she loved to stick her finger down her thorat. I will be honest with you it is a phase she is going through. At first we would respond to it becomming all worried and over time we knew it was a game. She did mommy and daddy came running. So after this we would not respond unless we knew. If I would hear her do it why I was in the kitchen and her in the livingroom I would pretend that I had to check on something just to make sure she was ok. After she realized that we were not going to run to her she stoped. I also cleaned up puke a few times but this was only in the beging of her game. Good luck and it will pass soon.!
my little one just turned one in jan. and she is doing the same thing. i just keeping pulling her finger out. i treat it like a bad habit that will only be broken with constant attention of letting her know its bad. another idea is try putting something sour like lemon jucie on her finger if she doesnt like the taste she might not do it. just make sure your child has no food allergies to fruit. good luck.
Oh Gosh, does that bring back memories...our son did the same thing and he thought it was hysterical. He used to do it with food in his mouth and he actually jammed the food in his throat twice and we had to do the Heimlich on him. It was the scariest thing for us. What worked best was ignoring him. It was very hard - especially after the choking incidents, but if we gave him any attention he continued to do it. Eventually, he stopped. It took about a month.
Good luck. Next, she'll be jamming things up her nose. Oh, the fun.
