Some babies like to eat their hands may be due to insufficient feeding, satisfying the need for sucking, self-soothing and other reasons.
1. Insufficient feeding: If feeding less food, the baby appears to be hungry, it may express through the behavior of eating hands, parents can appropriately increase the baby’s milk intake.
2. Satisfy the need to suck: the sucking reflex is the baby born with the reflex, refers to the baby’s lips touching the nipple or finger will consciously appear sucking action, so the baby will often eat hands, generally 3 months after birth this reflex will gradually disappear.
3. Self-soothing: some babies in the mood of nervousness, depression, will be through the behavior of eating fingers to obtain a sense of comfort, which may be an unconscious action, parents can accompany the baby to play, thereby distracting their attention and reduce the action of eating hands.
There are also other causes, such as micronutrient deficiencies.
Many babies will like to eat their hands, but this may cause swelling and pain in the fingers, and even bring pathogenic bacteria into the mouth, so parents should make timely corrections, help babies develop good hygiene habits, and patiently and calmly teach babies to stop eating their hands.
If the baby’s hand eating cannot be corrected for a long time, it is recommended to consult a doctor to clarify the cause.