With the spread of new parenting concepts, young parents, and even some elderly grandparents, have begun to recognize the importance of hand eating for babies, and no longer artificially prevent babies from eating their hands. However, new problems have arisen. Recently, more and more parents began because the baby does not eat hands and anxiety, suspecting that their babies do not eat hands, or eat hands eat imperfectly, so there are developmental problems. Really after having a baby, endless worry, some people worry about how to quit baby eating hands, some people worry that the baby does not eat hands! Eating fingers is a sign of the stage of development of the baby In early infancy, eating hands is a good activity, sucking fingers is also a sign of the baby’s intellectual development, but also marks the baby’s psychological development into a new stage, is a healthy way of self-soothing. Hand eating is also a cognitive process of exploration with the tongue and mouth. By the time your baby can grasp toys or food, hand eating will be replaced by these items. Is a baby’s lack of hand eating a developmental problem? In fact, not all babies must have the stage of eating hands. My eldest baby has not eaten hands since he was a child, but he has grown up smart and intelligent as usual. Of course, finger eating has so many benefits for babies, we still try to create conditions for babies to have the opportunity to eat hands. For example, you can let your baby wear less clothes so that it will be easier for him/her to eat his/her hands. If you help your baby to put his hand in his mouth and eat it, and the baby doesn’t resent it, you can also help him. There is no need to force him to eat his hands if he doesn’t want to. Babies like to eat hands need a process Baby hand eating is not accurate at the beginning, there will be a process from inaccurate to accurate, from occasional to frequent, so parents do not need to be anxious. Babies will adjust and correct themselves. What we do is to create a favorable environment and not to stop it artificially. What should I do if my baby always eats hands? You may have heard some anxiety from other moms who worry that their babies will not be able to quit after they learn to eat their hands. In fact, as babies grow up and the function of grasping objects with their hands emerges, they will grasp food or toys instead of eating their hands. Again, it is only when parents create an environment for their babies to grasp toys that this is possible. If the baby appears to eat hands frequently, it is also not recommended to use smearing chili water, mustard, hitting the hands and other ways to forcefully stop. You can use more toys to guide, let the baby grab toys to play, holding toys, knocking, fiddling with toys, etc., when the baby’s attention to the toys, natural hand eating phenomenon is less. The baby had not eaten hands, why recently started again? 1, discomfort caused by teething After 4 months, especially at about 6 months, most babies have begun to teethe, teething time the baby will feel uncomfortable, will be through the bite their fingers, fists to appease themselves. Compared to toys, fingers are easier to use and can be used at any time. It’s like when we adults have sore legs, the first thing we do is massage our muscles with our hands to relieve the discomfort, rather than looking for massage objects. At this time, if there is no excessive sucking phenomenon, there is no need to stop. 2, lack of security If you change your living environment, such as from your own home to your grandmother’s home or grandmother’s home, the baby is unfamiliar with the surrounding environment, lack of security, will also re-emerge sucking fingers. The baby can also perceive when couples fight and quarrel. Whichever the reason, it is necessary for mothers and fathers to give their babies a sense of security, such as hugging their babies more, playing with them more, talking more and letting them know that both their mothers and fathers are there! In addition, family harmony is the best environment for babies to grow up in.