Most infants develop finger sucking at three or four months of age. From a newborn who can only wave his little hand blindly, developing to a newborn who can control his hand activities on his own, the little baby has overcome many difficulties and made many attempts to put his fingers in his mouth accurately, which is a great progress! First, infants and toddlers 2-3 months eating hands is very natural Usually, 2-3 months old infants do not know that the hand is their own, in a chance to notice their own hands, put the hand in the mouth, eat very sweet and satisfied, this is the child’s exploration behavior, do not need to stop. What should babies do when they eat their hands? Guide 2 and 3 month old children to learn to use their hands. Small babies’ hands often clench their fists, and sometimes open when they encounter objects, so you can let him touch items of different textures and learn to hold them for a while. If in the baby’s field of vision hand can reach the place, hanging some toys. He waved his little hand to touch the toy by chance, in this repeated contact to learn hand-eye coordination intentional contact with toys. Second, 4-6 months of infants eat hands is the development of perception When the child 4, 5 months, you can hand-eye coordination to grasp toys, not only put the eat hands, will also grab the toy and any other objects into the mouth, parents do not need to be nervous, do not have to stop, intraoral exploration is conducive to the development of baby’s perceptual ability. The baby will be able to use his or her hands to help the 4-6 months old child. 5 months old can put the toys at different distances, where the child can reach after efforts, so that the baby can reach the toys with his or her own efforts, not passively put the toys in the baby’s hands. 6 months old exercise the child to pass the toys from one hand to the other hand. Sitting position, the baby has taken an object in one hand, and then give the same hand an object to see if the original object will be passed to the other hand, if not, you can teach the baby, a few times will learn. Third, 7-12 months old babies eat hands to relieve teething pain After 6 months of age, most children teething, teething baby will feel uncomfortable, the child by biting their fingers, fists or other objects to soothe themselves. It’s like how we adults press and rub our muscles to relieve pain when our legs are sore for a reason. You can give your child gum to chew on to achieve the effect of gently massaging the gums. However, many infants still like to bite their fingers and fists, without over-correcting the child. Fourth, 7-12 months old babies eat hands to relieve teething pain After 1 year old babies eat hands, mainly seeking a sense of security, relaxed, warm family atmosphere will increase the child’s sense of security, parents should avoid excessive blame and criticism of the child. If the child focuses on eating hands for a long time, parents need to guide the child and shift their attention from fingers to toys, picture books and other brightly colored things. When your baby eats his hands, you can give him teething cookies, or teething sticks, to free up his little hands. Fifth, preschool or school-age children still eat hands or chew nails to be more caring Preschool-age children who still eat hands, most are due to psychological reasons and have little to do with the lack of certain elements in the body. Parents should communicate more with their children to understand the child’s psychological condition, is not criticizing the lack of care, and expand the child’s range of interests to encourage them to gradually give up bad habits.