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How to stop child from chewing on blanket


how to stop child from chewing on blanket

Posted on by chilishawaii

“My baby will not stop chewing on her blanket! I have tried everything. Please help!”

I have heard it a million times – “my child just won’t quit chewing on the blanket, what do I do?” There are many reasons why your child might be attracted to their blanket and as with all baby behavior, you should try to figure out what is going on before you jump to conclusions. But first let’s review some of the things you can try if your child is truly obsessed with their comforter:

Getting tough – this method works great for parents who don’t mind using aversive consequences. The idea comes from a very old school technique called “behavioral contrast” where you’re essentially putting fear into the heart of your baby. The way it works is simple – you use a very loud NO and then IMMEDIATELY present your child with something even louder and more startling – a sudden, unexpected blast of white noise from the TV or radio – anything that makes a loud unpleasant sound will do.

You can also shake a soda can full of pennies (or make some noise by dropping metal spoons in an empty coffee can) but be ready to pull this off fast because you only have one shot to make it work! Wait until your child looks away from their blanket or shows other signs they are no longer engaging in chewing behavior before making your move.

Rewarding replacement behavior – if you want to try and channel your child’s fixation into a more helpful behavior you can try something I like to call “rewarding replacement behavior.” The idea here is that your child likes their blanket so much because it has some features they find rewarding. It could be the feel, taste, smell or even sounds coming from it – regardless of what it is, you want to provide an alternative experience that is equally as appealing.

Perhaps your child likes to hold their blanket and suck on it – in this case you might try wrapping one of those baby washcloths around their pacifier (or even better yet give them frozen breast milk popsicles or teething biscuits dipped in strawberry jam). If your child appears focused on chewing at the corner of their comforter then perhaps you can switch out the blanket for a stuffed animal that they can bite down on – just be sure it’s big enough that your child cannot swallow or choke on small pieces of stuffing.

Getting the right tools – if you have a soft chewer then all of these methods might still fall short. The best thing to do in those case is to invest in some baby-friendly chew toys designed specifically with teething infants in mind. Check out our product guide below which includes some of the most popular options available today.

There are lots of people who claim they make great pet toys as well so give those a shot too! Just remember, no matter how many times you try and distract them from their comforter, eventually little ones will become big ones and you can bet that blanket will come with them when they head to college!

Why Do Toddlers Chew On Blankets?

Toddlers are almost as bad as puppies about chewing on whatever they find at graze level. Mouthing objects begins in babyhood, when lots of learning is based on sensory experiences. However, chronic chewing on a favorite blanket more likely serves the purpose of relieving the anxiety of separating from parents or the discomfort of teething. Face it -- toddlers aren't old enough for chewing gum, a substance that helps so many adults allay stress.

Mouth Learning

Virginia speech language pathologist Suzanne Evans Morris describes the mouth as a baby's "window to the world," especially at birth when the mouth is one of the body's most powerful sensory tools. The mouth teaches babies and young children about matters including taste, texture and shape, as well as concepts such as softness and firmness. Toddlers gradually apply their mouth-feel knowledge to solid foods, Morris says. What adults refer to as comfort foods, such as macaroni and cheese, are often ones they loved as young children.

Teething

What Are the Causes of Children Chewing on Cribs?

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When teething makes gums sore, Morris says, young children want to put things in their mouth, because chewing increases comfort. However, the toddler habit of sucking or chewing on toys, blankets and other non-edibles may continue through preschool as a habit that soothes anxiety. Sometimes chewing on loveys, such as blankets, is a young child's way of making transitions, such as going to bed. But if your teeth grind in frustration each time your child chews on his blanket, try to help him break the habit by offering healthy distractions whenever the blanket gets near his mouth.

Pica

Although mostly behavioral, indiscriminate chewing on non-edible objects can proceed to eating those items, such as:

  • buttons
  • clay
  • dirt
  • paint chips
  • toothpaste

This may be caused by a potentially unhealthy craving called pica, which may require medical intervention. Pica is not unusual in children ages 2 to 3. However, developmental disabilities, including autism and mental retardation, are sometimes the cause when pica is excessive.

Cognitive Boost

Activities for Autistic Toddlers

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Keep in mind that similar to adults who like to gnaw on gum and pens, some kids are soothed by chewing. Prepare yourself. The day may come when your kid says she can't concentrate on her homework without chewing gum, and she may have a point. Research from St. Lawrence University in New York shows that the act of chewing it briefly before a test -- not the ingredients in chewing gum -- aids concentration and boosts the ability to solve problems. However, researchers don't yet know what causes this effect. Here's another thought to keep in mind as you moan about the cost of gum at the supermarket -- at least your child won't be chewing on his old lovey, dovey, baby blanket.That might be a socially acceptable oral fixation at age 4, but not at 14.

Bad childhood habits: how to fight?

We call a habit an unconsciously repeated action that plays a certain role and also has its own reason. For a child, this is a ritual that is performed under the condition of the occurrence of certain life circumstances. Many habits are considered bad habits, although they really are not. However, they should be combated, because pathological habits have an undesirable effect on the development of the child. A bad habit develops into a necessary calming ritual that helps the baby distract from anxiety, fear, or compensate for a lack of communication. All this threatens to delay the mental development of the baby, and also distracts him from cognitive processes.

  • 1 When a baby sucks on a blanket

  • 2 Ways to solve the problem

  • 3 When a child sucks his thumb

  • 4 Thumb sucking at an early age

  • 5 Thumb sucking at an older age

  • 6 Ways to solve the problem

  • 7 When a child bites his nails

  • 8 Ways to solve the problem

When a baby sucks on a blanket

Some babies get used to holding the blanket close to them, holding it to their face, or even taking the end of the blanket in their mouth and sucking. Usually the child does this when getting ready for bed, and may become so attached to this item that he will flatly refuse to part with the blanket, even when it needs to be washed. Usually such a habit does not reveal any serious consequences for the child, although it can greatly annoy parents. The habit of sucking on a blanket remains until the age of 8-10, and then disappears without a trace. Why does this habit occur?

It often happens that a child is afraid of the dark, afraid to be alone in the dark when the parents turn off the light in his room, or simply afraid to be alone. In order to fight his fear, the child becomes attached to the things around him, transfers friendly feelings to them. An imaginary friend will protect, understand and always be there. The presence of a soft toy can bring similar comfort to a baby, but attachment to a blanket is possible. Sucking on the blanket or holding it close to him, the child seems to make sure that a friend is next to him. For children, suckling is a much more familiar way of warding off fears than talking. By his actions, the baby subconsciously signals that he is experiencing anxiety, inconvenience, that he is scared. Such a habitual action, like sucking on a blanket, stabilizes the state of mind of the baby. This is purely a childish habit, passing with age.

But even adults often behave like children. By remembering this more often, you will stop worrying about the child's behavior in vain.

Ways to solve the problem

First of all, stop making a problem out of it (pun intended, but nonetheless). The habit of sucking on a blanket will go away on its own with age. If you want to do something, then heed the following advice:

  1. Reward the child for his success, thereby encouraging maturation.
  2. Give your baby more time, especially before putting him to bed - sit next to him, tell / read a story or just talk to the child.
  3. Leave a night light on all night if your child likes it.
  4. Don't blame your baby for sucking on the blanket. Instead, show him your confidence that sooner or later the baby will stop doing this.
  5. Do not bribe a child to make him forget about the blanket.

I must say that blanket sucking is not such a common habit, and is not so harmful - in a word, it is not more harmful than others. Some children suck their thumbs, some are tied to a blanket, others refuse to talk normally for a long time, preferring to babble. These habits only show us that the child does not want to leave a certain stage of childhood and move on to a new stage of development, even if he really wants to grow up quickly.

The task of parents is to help children, not scold them. Treat your child like an adult, and very soon you will see that the baby has broken with his habit.

When a child sucks his thumb

Thumb sucking is a fairly common habit in children. You shouldn't worry too much about this, but you don't need to let the situation take its course. We will try to prevent and, if necessary, eliminate this habit.

Parents quickly get bored when their comments do not bring the expected results. Then they begin to treat the child as if he were deliberately sucking his thumb. There are situations when parents, whenever they find that the child has put his thumb in his mouth, order him to take it out, but after a minute the finger returns to its original place. Desperate, adults can raise their voice at the child, punish him, accuse him of disobedience, humiliate him and remove his finger from his mouth by force. Bitter mixtures smeared on the finger or gloves are used.

To be fair, these methods sometimes work. But, unfortunately, for the psyche of the child, they are very harmful. Harsh, demanding and rude methods spoil the child's relationship with his parents. A child will not have a better opinion of you after such pressure, and it is unlikely that he will love you stronger. On the contrary, the baby will consider you impatient, unpleasant and overly demanding people (even if he cannot yet formulate his opinion in words). To understand the feelings of the child, imagine that the boss behaves in a similar way with you.

But that's not all. Weaning a child from thumb sucking does not solve the problem. The child can replace the finger with something else that is less visible to the parents. After all, it is we who are satisfied that the child has stopped sucking his thumb, and not the child himself! The main task facing parents is to understand what exactly they want to get rid of. Thumb sucking is harmless to the child's psyche. But, nevertheless, from a psychological point of view, this habit should be eliminated, because it is an alarming symptom. It can indicate two reasons related to the age of the child.

Thumb sucking at an early age

Thumb sucking at an early age signals that the baby is not suckling enough. After all, sucking is his natural need.

  1. At the age of 6-7 months the first teeth appear. Sucking helps soothe irritated gums.
  2. The baby switches to semi-liquid food, the baby begins to eat from a spoon, and the parents forget his suckling needs.
  3. Some parents start weaning their baby from the bottle long before the baby is ready.
  4. Some parents encourage the baby to drink milk quickly, but the baby does not have time to satisfy his need to suckle.

Helping a child in this case is not difficult at all. Just let the baby suckle enough during meals. Get nipples with small holes so that the baby drinks the contents of the bottle slowly, over 20-30 minutes. In a month or even earlier, the baby will stop sucking his thumb.

Thumb sucking at an older age

What could be the reasons?

  1. The previously acquired habit has been preserved.
  2. The influence of the degree of immaturity, that is, the so-called return to an earlier stage of development. It happens that, having learned to use the potty, the child suddenly begins to dirty his pants again. Or, having learned to dress on his own, he begins to act up and demand that his parents dress him again. Similarly, once weaned or bottled, a baby may want to suckle again. If this continues for a long time, it signals that the child for some reason does not want to grow up (it is necessary to identify the reasons)
  3. The child feels fear or powerlessness. Thumb sucking is pleasurable and pleasurable to the baby, as it is associated with infantile pleasurable sensations (sucking = hunger satisfaction).

Solutions

  1. Do not remove your finger from your child's mouth. You can give the baby caramel, sucking candy.
  2. Don't go back to the bottle.
  3. Consider thumb sucking as one of the ways your child wants to stay small. Watch the child - he should show some other too childish habits, for example, excessive tearfulness, deliberately childish babble, unwillingness to eat or dress on his own, unwillingness to communicate with peers. By encouraging the child to grow too much, we retard his development. Be patient, be more affectionate and softer, show interest in adult moments in the child's behavior. Approval and love give children courage and perseverance. In their absence, children become infantile and lost.
  4. Try to rid the child of fear. It often happens that a child sucks his thumb when he is afraid of something (for example, he is afraid of big dogs, or is afraid when his mother raises his voice, or is afraid of the dark and falls asleep with his thumb in his mouth).
  5. It is better to do nothing than to do something wrong. If you don't understand why a baby sucks its thumb, don't rack your brains. This habit in itself is not so terrible.

When a child bites his nails

Why does a child bite his nails? There may be several options.

  1. The child is simply pleased, he receives physical satisfaction. In this case, to wean the child from this habit, offer him an activity that will bring a lot of pleasure to the baby.
  2. This habit allows the child to return to an earlier stage of childhood. Putting a finger in the mouth, the child reproduces the movement familiar from infancy. The kid seems to say by this that he is not yet ready to grow up.
  3. In this way, the child expresses his aggression - for example, he irritates his parents by showing hostility.
  4. There is a strong impulse in the child's soul that makes him bite his nails, thereby freeing himself from aggressive stimuli.

It is difficult to get rid of this habit because it arises easily. No threats, no punishments, no rewards are recommended here. You should not make comments to the child. First of all, you need to understand the reasons that gave rise to the habit of biting your nails. The reasons for this lie in the feelings of the baby. Biting his nails, the child tries to get rid of psychological discomfort, relieve tension, at the same time enjoys and releases the accumulated aggression.

Ways to solve the problem

  1. Try to make the child's life more pleasant and fun, eliminate the causes that create tension and oppress the baby. Think about whether you have been overly harsh and strict or nervous lately. Maybe you were punishing a child. It is also likely that you were too demanding of him. If the child accumulates irritation or excitement, but the opportunity to take the soul is not provided, he may bite his nails. Try to relieve nervous tension in the baby.
  2. The child returns to childhood habits, which means that we could not instill in him the desire to grow, to grow up. We encouraged him to grow up, but apparently something was not enough - for example, our approval. In this case, it is necessary to reward the child for adult behavior. Sometimes a kind word or a stroke is enough - the main thing is that the child sees that his actions are approved. At the same time, childishness should not be punished, just ignore such moments in the behavior of the baby.
  3. If, by biting his nails, a child gives vent to aggression, let him sometimes freely express his hostility and his anger. Don't worry about these outbursts. After all, adults also tend to take the soul. If you constantly suppress the free expression of feelings in a child, you will only achieve that aggression will accumulate in him and overwhelm him. Encourage acceptable forms of aggression in sports or team games.

It is easier to wean a child from the habit of nail biting when it first appeared, and not a couple of years later. But at the same time, you need to act correctly, calmly, without showing excessive zeal. Even out of love for a child, we cannot change ourselves, but we can moderate our tendency to punish. Parental pressure on a child almost always develops into reproaches and threats. Rejecting the unwanted impact on the baby, you will achieve excellent results, you can easily prevent or save the child from the bad habit of biting his nails.

When a child sucks on a blanket

Some children develop the habit of sucking on a blanket, holding it tightly against their face. They usually do this when they go to bed, and they become so attached to the blanket that they do not want to part with it, even when it needs washing or needs to be thrown away, as it is completely dilapidated. The children simply cannot imagine how they can change the blanket, and, despite the protests of their parents, they go to bed only when they are covered with such a favorite object.

Although this habit is especially annoying for parents, it does not lead to any serious consequences for the baby and can persist even up to 8 or 10 years, and then disappears without leaving any traces. It is not known exactly why it appears, but some general explanation can be given.

It often happens that a child, when put to bed, is afraid to be alone or in the dark. If he is often shouted at or severely punished, this fear may increase. In this case, precisely in order to overcome his fear, the child becomes attached to his native things, transferring to them feelings that he usually has for friends. After all, it is always nice to have friends, to be close to them, to feel that you are understood and protected. Exactly the same consolation is given to the child by the company of some rag animal that lies next to him in the bed. A blanket or some other small object can do the same.

Starting to suck the blanket or hugging it to him, the baby seems to want to make sure that his friend is there, very close to him. He seems to ask him from time to time: “Are you here?”, because in the dark he is almost invisible. And yet there is one difference: sucking is a much more familiar way for children to drive away fear than talking. Sucking on the blanket, the child, as it were, lets us know that he is experiencing some kind of inconvenience, a feeling of anxiety, or that the night itself frightens him, and when he does something (that is, sucks) that previously gave him so much pleasure, it becomes easier for him . This habit is purely childish and disappears with age.

But sometimes we behave like children even though we have become adults. If we remember this more often, we will stop needlessly worrying about the behavior of our children.

First of all, it is important not to make a problem out of this. The child will get rid of the habit of sucking on the blanket. But if you still want to do something, you can advise the following:
1. In every possible way encourage children to grow, mature, rewarding each success.
2. Spend more time with your baby, especially before you start putting him to bed: sit next to him and talk longer than usual.
3. If the child likes it, leave a small lamp on all night.
4. Let your child know that you are absolutely sure that sooner or later he will stop sucking on the blanket, but do not blame him for this.
5. Do not try to bribe him with something, if only he would forget about the blanket.

Sucking on a blanket is not a very common habit, and in general not more harmful than others, which children sometimes retain for quite a long time.

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