One of mine likes to gag himself with his fingers

Am I giving him reinforcement by telling him "no" and taking his fingers out of his mouth? He mostly does it during mealtimes. Maybe he is bored in the highchair while I am taking turns feeding him and his brother. Teething?? Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

Alivea did this for a little while. I would do the same thing by telling her no. Came here, posted and they all said to ignore her. So I tried it and she stopped within a day or two.

 

Thanks, then thats what I will do!! I am sure it is for attention since I go crazy as soon as he does it and he is totally looking at me while doing it.

 

Yep, Trevor did that a number of times and Trent just a couple. Trevor went as far as to make himself vomit. I did my best to not react at all and he quit. It's just another new discovery for them. I freaked myself out when it first happened by searching online... found all of the worst case scenarios... but it truly wasn't anything to worry about. Just annoying as heck.

 

Arwen totally went through this phase. I finally learned to stop reacting to it because I think she was getting a kick out of my reaction to it (you know, negative attention is attention none the less?). She eventually stopped doing it but will still do it now and then. It grosses me out but I don't think it's something she will do for the rest of her life so I'm not too concerned about it. I read that when babies are teething and feeling discomfort from the teeth in the back (even though they may not be coming in yet) that they will try to chew on their hand or fingers back there to relieve the discomfort with the result of them "accidentally" gagging themselves.

 

My daughter is just starting to not do this anymore. And I agree that it's about the attention after a while. At first, I think she just was kind of amazed by it. But then she just liked my reaction. In fact, she would put her hands in her mouth with that evil grin she does when she knows she's being bad. She's vomited once or twice....gross....

 

Hi Rachel! Jake did this too for awhile and I also ignored it. It was a quickly passing phase, thank goodness!