If a two-month-old baby eats his hands, does he really get smarter the more he eats?

Babies all over the world are equally cute, and people can’t help but kiss, hug, and lift them up… I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they also have one biggest hobby in common – eating hands! Some parents get worried when they hear this. Will babies eat bacteria from their hands and affect their health? Will it affect the growth of teeth and cause the teeth to be unevenly arranged? When will eating like this end? Do you want to intervene? Don’t be anxious yet, it’s not necessarily a bad thing if your baby loves to eat from your hands. However, everything has a degree. It can be said that things must be reversed when extremes occur. The same is true for babies eating hands. 01 The reason why babies like to suck their fingers: If the baby sucks his fingers repeatedly or involuntarily, it is medically called thumb sucking, which is what we call hand sucking. 1. Physiological reflex: Babies are born with a \”feeding reflex\”. If you fiddle with the baby\’s cheek or lips, the baby will turn his head to the position of the hand. This reflex helps the baby find the nipple and is a normal physiological reflex for babies aged 0 to 4 months. 2. Self-comfort As the baby grows, the reflexes of behaviors such as foraging, sucking, and hand-eating weaken, and the self-component increases. The baby begins to use these behaviors to comfort himself. 3. During the teething period, babies begin to grow teeth around 4 months old, which may cause them to drool excessively and like to chew hard things. At this time, babies may chew their fingers and rub their gums to relieve tooth itch and pain. 02Why is eating hands a good thing? 1. Intellectual development signal: Babies who are 1 to 2 months old do not yet have the ability to open their hands independently, so they can only put the whole fist of their hand to their mouth to suck. When the baby reaches about 3 months old, he starts sucking his fingers. At first it may be the thumb, then the index finger or several fingers together. This seemingly ordinary set of actions is actually very complicated for babies. The process of the baby successfully eating from the finger requires the coordination of the sensory system and the motor system. The completion of this action is a signal of the baby\’s intellectual development, marking the baby\’s entry into the preparation stage of finger functionalization and hand-eye coordination. 2. After the baby\’s emotional release reaches 4 months of age, the baby\’s hand-eating becomes more of an autonomous behavior. Eat hands, feet, pacifiers, and anything that interests you to gain satisfaction and make your baby happier. When eating with hands, the stimulation received by the mouth can promote the baby\’s brain development and make the baby smarter. Tips: Usually, babies start sucking their thumbs at 3 to 4 months old, peak at 7 to 8 months old, and gradually decrease and disappear after 2 years old. Therefore, parents should not worry too much when they find their baby eating their hands. All you have to do is let nature take its course, and don\’t forcefully intervene and put a psychological burden on your baby. Secondly, pay attention to cleaning your baby\’s hands to reduce the spread of bacteria. If your baby is stubborn about excessive thumb sucking, or still has the habit of thumb sucking after the age of 4, then parents need to pay attention. 03What is excessive hand eating? Although eating hands is of great benefit to babies, everything must be reversed. If the baby eats hands excessively, the disadvantages will outweigh the advantages. 1. Deformation and broken skin If the baby does not simply suck on the hand, but \”gnaws\” it, or even the fingers are deformed and the skin is broken, this can easily cause skin infection, and parents need to provide gentle intervention. 2. Affects the development of babies after 2 to 4 years old.Excessive hand-eating may have adverse effects on the development of the mouth and jaw, affecting the upper wall of the mouth and the arrangement of the teeth. Parents need to provide gentle intervention. Tips: Thumb sucking in babies after the age of 4 mostly occurs when they are lonely, anxious, depressed, tired, hungry, or sick. At this time, parents need to pay special attention to their baby\’s emotional changes. Usually, if the baby is still sucking his thumb over the age of 5, parents need to intervene. 04What should parents do? Babies frequently eat their hands to a large extent because they are self-soothing. Parents distract the baby\’s attention and gradually increase the baby\’s interests, allowing the baby to focus on other things, and the number of self-soothing will naturally decrease. 1. New soothing objects: Chewing on hands is a behavior for babies to comfort themselves. If the baby eats hands excessively, parents are worried about adverse effects on the baby, and they can also find a new soothing object to replace hand eating. For formula-fed babies, you can directly prepare a pacifier. For breastfed babies, the Academy of Pediatrics guidelines recommend waiting until at least one month of age before using a pacifier. For older babies, you can choose handkerchiefs, plush toys, etc. as soothing objects for your baby to soothe your emotions and replace hand-feeding. 2. Don’t be anxious. Understand that it is normal for babies to eat their hands. Parents should not be anxious, let alone pass on anxiety to their babies. So as not to aggravate the baby\’s uneasiness and make the hand-feeding situation more serious. 3. Coax the baby to sleep and soothe the baby. After each feeding, do not divert attention immediately. Stay with the baby and pat the baby to sleep, so as to prevent the baby from eating because no one is paying attention. For older babies, parents can read picture books and tell stories to the baby before going to bed until the baby falls asleep completely. 4. Play more games For babies, parents can play some hands-on games to change the baby\’s fixed mindset of eating hands. Let your baby know that fingers are not just for eating, but can also be used for many things. For older babies, increase parent-child interaction time and play more games with the baby to distract the baby from eating hands. When babies are attracted to new games, small experiments, inventions, etc., they will ignore the matter of eating hands. 5. Picture book guidance Parents can use some picture books to strengthen their guidance on baby eating. Read to your baby to help him change his habit of eating his hands. For example, \”Lulu never wants to suck her thumb again\” and \”Little Mole sucks her thumb\”.