In recent years, I have often encountered some parents' problems about "eating hands". Some children are over 2 years old and eat their hands badly. Parents tried everything: beating, cursing, rubbing pepper water, acupuncture ... but the children still couldn't stop. Even the children are in kindergarten, and they still like to eat their hands when they sleep. Parents are in a hurry.
In daily life, we often see some babies who are several months old like to "taste" with their hands in their mouths. When adults see them, they will immediately draw out their little hands and say, "It's dirty and can't be eaten."
Should we stop children from eating their hands? A seemingly simple thing has extremely important significance and influence on children's growth.
Professional explanation of children's "eating hands"
1 From a psychological point of view, it is the primary stage of psychological sexual desire development, that is, the "oral sex desire period". Babies in this period like to put everything into their mouths to taste and establish contact with the world through oral perception.
From a neurological point of view, the nerves in the baby's mouth develop faster than those in his hands, so he prefers to explore things with his mouth. In life, we can find that touching the baby's lips three months ago will cause his sucking reflex, which is an instinct and particularly exciting. Therefore, in order to meet the requirements of sucking, babies often use their fingers as stimulation, showing that they especially like sucking their fingers. If the baby is eating hands and feet, it is that he is learning the world with his mouth.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has also pointed out that children suck their fingers and have a soothing and calming effect. Some experts believe that about half or more children will eat their fingers when they are young, which is largely a continuation of the normal root reflex and sucking reflex at birth. There is evidence that some babies suck their fingers even before birth.
The experiment of "Studying Hand-mouth Synergy" conducted by French National Research Center shows that "eating hands" may be a unique survival mechanism from the perspective of evolution to ensure that babies or people who have experienced brain injury can fill their stomachs and survive without exercise consciousness.
It is not instinctive for older children to eat their hands.
Generally speaking, when the baby is 3-4 months old, the sucking reflex will gradually disappear, and the baby's demand for sucking fingers will gradually weaken. By 6-7 months, the general phenomenon of finger sucking will gradually disappear. To this end, I deliberately looked through the records I gave my daughter in the circle of friends and found that the truth is this: from birth to 6 months ago, her hand was always in her mouth; Starting from 6 months, knock on building blocks, eat cookies and play with tactile balls; Play with fishing toys, turn over books, use spoons, etc. To 10 months.
Her hands are always busy! Except for the occasional smell of feet, the mouth no longer eats hands!
It is worth noting that some children, especially vulnerable and insecure children, occasionally suck their fingers until about 8 months or even later. With the development of baby's ability, the frequency of eating hands will gradually begin to decrease. Most children's love for eating hands will weaken when they are 2-4 years old, and about 80% babies will automatically give up the habit of eating hands before they are 5 years old.
Whether or not to intervene should be analyzed in stages.
Why are some children still eating their hands when they are two, three or even teenagers? Do you want to stop this behavior of children? When and how to intervene? What are the benefits of eating hands? What are the disadvantages?
In fact, there should be different analysis for children of different ages.
Six months ago.
Babies in this period eat their hands without any intervention. "Eating hands" is a child's instinct, a sign of intellectual development, and is exploring and learning with the mouth. Putting your finger in your mouth is a simple thing for an adult, but for a baby, it means that his motor muscle group and muscle control ability have made great achievements.
6 months to 1 year
There are several reasons why children of this age eat their hands.
Exploratory learning: the "oral desire period" generally lasts from birth to 1 year;
Comfort yourself: After 6 months, the baby will begin to recognize strangers, be nervous because of some strange information from the outside world, and use his hands to relieve the pressure.
Teeth: The action of eating hands is to relieve gum discomfort by biting.
In the meantime, we can provide the following help for our children.
Prepare "gutta percha" or grinding stick for children to relieve the discomfort of teething.
Satisfy the desire to explore with your mouth, clean and disinfect the things at the baby's entrance to avoid dirty things entering the mouth and causing intestinal diseases.
Spend more time with your baby: I feel safe enough.
Prepare a rich environment to keep the baby's little hands busy: when his little hands can do more things, his attention will not always be on the matter of "eating hands"
1 to 2 years old
If you reach this age, the frequency of children "eating their hands" is still very high, so parents should pay attention. It is found that children who lack parental care and spiritual comfort are easy to form the habit of sucking their fingers. At this time, eating hands can comfort the baby and release tension and depression.
So what we have to do at this time is
Find out the reason: Is it because the relationship with the baby is not "harmonious"? Need to reflect on how much communication you have with your child, whether there are too many restrictions on your baby and some strict requirements that make your baby unhappy.
Guide and divert attention: provide a rich environment, encourage him to explore with his hands, cultivate his sense of touch and practical ability, and attract the baby's attention with appropriate toys.
Simply stopping eating hands is a rude deprivation of children's psychological comfort. Even if the purpose of stopping is achieved on the surface, the child's inner depression and pain must find an outlet, otherwise more serious psychological problems and other physical problems may occur.
After 2 years old
After 2 years old, if the phenomenon of children "eating hands" is still very frequent, it may be the following reasons.
Express inner pressure: After 2 years old, the baby begins to have independent consciousness, and the desire to explore the new world will be stronger. Some children are still eating their hands when they are four or five years old or even teenagers. This situation is often related to children's insecurity or inferiority, which is the result of other educational problems.
Lack of some trace elements: for example, zinc-deficient babies cause pica due to taste disorder and like to bite their fingernails. If this happens, the mother will take the baby to the hospital for examination, diagnosis and treatment.
With the growth of children, there are more and more opportunities to contact pathogenic microorganisms, and the disease is from the mouth, so there are many health hazards in "eating hands"; Sucking fingers for a long time can lead to finger skin damage and so on. In recent years, it has also been found that babies who eat their hands too much in deciduous teeth can easily lead to tooth deformity and finger deformities.
Therefore, parents should pay attention when older children show a stubborn preference for eating hands. The American Academy of Pediatrics "Encyclopedia of Parenting" suggests that after the age of 2 4, if the baby still eats his hands often, parents need to help him correct it. The behavior of "eating hands" has a lot to do with children's physical and psychological factors. It is suggested that parents and friends take their children to a professional child care institution for examination, and conduct a comprehensive evaluation and guidance on children's mental health.
Eating hands is a necessary stage for a baby to grow up, just like a child can sit and walk. Simply stopping eating hands is a rude deprivation of children's psychological comfort. I hope more parents can cherish their children's experience of "eating hands" and give them more freedom of love.