Help me stop the beavers!

Recently, my girls have started eating everything wood in my house... door frames, baby gates, sheet rock, coffee tables, their crib, and their toy box. I'm not sure what to do to stop it. When I catch them, I immediately remove them from it and tell them no, and then re-direct them to a fun toy. But its just not getting any better. So if any of you have any great ideas, lets hear em. Its driving me nuts and I know that eating all those wood slivers can't be good for them.

 

Do you think you could teach them "yucky"? Basically whenever you notice them biting something they shouldn't make a yucky face and remove them from the object while saying "Yucky! You don't want that in your mouth, eww yucky!" That's what we do here. Now all I have to do is say yucky and they'll spit whatever it is out.

 

Honestly, I may sound like a nut.. Bitter Apple is yucky and non toxic. It works on ferrets!

 

MAggie went through that when she was getting her molars. We just blocked off as much as we could. No good advice, just hope it passes soon. :hug99:

 

QUOTE(Her Royal Jennyness @ Oct 17 2007, 11:27 AM) [snapback]454785[/snapback]
Do you think you could teach them "yucky"? Basically whenever you notice them biting something they shouldn't make a yucky face and remove them from the object while saying "Yucky! You don't want that in your mouth, eww yucky!" That's what we do here. Now all I have to do is say yucky and they'll spit whatever it is out.



I just tried it with Haley while she was eating the baby gate and she just glared at me and started crying. She moved on to the toy box and I did it again and she just laughed and continued eating it.

QUOTE(Erykah @ Oct 17 2007, 11:34 AM) [snapback]454799[/snapback]
Honestly, I may sound like a nut.. Bitter Apple is yucky and non toxic. It works on ferrets!



Funny! Last night I was talking to DH and told him that if it didn't stop soon I was going to see if the stuff you put on your nails when you are trying to stop biting them would work. Maybe I'll just bust out the Bitter Apple.

 

:8714bumper:

I just wanted to bump to see if anyone else had any ideas.

 

Maybe if they are cutting molars or something - that would make the gnawing feel really good - you could find somthing for them to chew on? Maybe a really strong teether or something. I know they make these rubber things that kids with sensory disorders can chew on. Also, some kids who are SERIOUS biters (to other kids) are given these rubber sensory chewers. Maybe if everytime they were biting on something wooden you could say, "ooooh, yucky, we don't bite the toybox, we bite this." and hand them their little chewey thing. Then they might learn to not chew on the wood. I have to agree that wooden splinters can't be good for them!
Here's a link to the older child chewey toy I mentioned:
Chewey Tubes

 

I second the PP... Give them something appropriate to chew and direct their attention to that rather than trying to stop them from chewing altogether. My guys were bigtime beavers when they had their teething flurry between 8 & 14 months (cut everything up through their canines in rapid succession) but as soon as the teething stopped, so did the behavior.

 

QUOTE(allgood2000 @ Oct 20 2007, 03:19 PM) [snapback]459600[/snapback]
Maybe if they are cutting molars or something - that would make the gnawing feel really good - you could find somthing for them to chew on? Maybe a really strong teether or something. I know they make these rubber things that kids with sensory disorders can chew on. Also, some kids who are SERIOUS biters (to other kids) are given these rubber sensory chewers. Maybe if everytime they were biting on something wooden you could say, "ooooh, yucky, we don't bite the toybox, we bite this." and hand them their little chewey thing. Then they might learn to not chew on the wood. I have to agree that wooden splinters can't be good for them!
Here's a link to the older child chewey toy I mentioned:
Chewey Tubes



Well, I tried to go to that website and order 2 of the red ones, but everytime I try to add one to the cart, it adds a 6 pack of them. I'll try again later. Thanks.