Caring for a baby, young mothers often encounter difficulties and troubles: establish breastfeeding, fight colic, accustom and wean from the nipple, accustom to fall asleep without motion sickness, fight with various bad habits of babies. Babies also have them. In addition to dummies, the child sucks the tongue or finger, and many mothers are very concerned about this fact.
Dummy to help
Parents at first try to make friends with a baby soother. The baby's dummy has a calming effect on the baby and satisfies the sucking instinct. Thanks to the rubber thing, the child falls asleep faster, has fun, does not pull any unnecessary objects into his mouth, and does not cry after eating. For mummies, a nipple is a great help in caring for a baby. But many babies completely refuse the charms of this attribute. One child sucks his tongue, the other prefers to hold a finger or a piece of a sheet in his mouth.
When a baby sucks a finger, a dummy or another little thing, parents are not particularly worried, as they can take away a foreign object from the child or stick a finger out of their mouths during sleep. But when a child sucks his tongue, mothers are lost, they do not know what to do: how to wean a native child from a habit?
Bad habits
Sucking a finger, lip, tongue, or any object can be either a harmless habit or a serious cause for concern. It is necessary to consider in detail the causes of the occurrence, observe the children in order to understand why the child sucks the tongue.
Reasons for sucking the tongue
There are several common reasons why a baby uses his own language as a dummy.
- Sucking reflex. Sucking is an important skill in the first months of a child’s life. Thanks to him, the child receives food. In addition, the process itself gives the child great pleasure.
- Soothing. Sucking a dummy, finger, tongue and lip has a calming effect on the baby. Many kids rock themselves by sucking on a tongue, fingers, or corner of a blanket.
- Entertainment. Breasts spend monotonously the first days, weeks of their lives. They spend most of their time in sleep or in feeding. They still do not know how to play, and the growing body requires a variety of actions, so the child sucks the tongue. Thus, he enjoys and has fun at the same time.
- Brain development. The sucking instinct encourages the child to pull objects and palms in his mouth. The baby learns the world by licking and sucking. At the moment when the child sucks the tongue or finger, the maximum number of muscles of his face is involved, which has a beneficial effect on the development of the brain.
- Lack of care and attention. One of the negative reasons why a child constantly sucks his tongue may be a lack of parental love and attention. If the mother treats the child coldly or adheres to strict views on upbringing, this may adversely affect the psychological perception of the world by the baby. The child feels lonely, unnecessary. He is uncomfortable, lacking hugs and maternal affection. In such cases, he constantly sucks his tongue - this action calms him and makes up for the feeling of uselessness.
- Hunger. In some cases, the baby sucks the tongue due to malnutrition. Usually the baby is starving in dysfunctional families or in those that adhere to a strict diet.
- Lack of a dummy. Parents should understand: the instinct of sucking in babies must be satisfied. Breastfeeding is a must. If the baby quickly eats up with breast milk or is on artificial feeding, then the instinct of sucking will not be satisfied enough. In this case, the dummy will be useful, since its absence provokes the sucking of the tongue or fingers.
Attention to the baby
Some parents do not pay attention to the fact that the baby sucks the tongue. They consider this phenomenon to be fleeting, which will pass through time itself. In many cases, this is what happens. But do not ignore the sucking of the finger, you need to observe the crumbs and analyze its behavior.
Useful Tips
If mothers decided to fight addiction, then before weaning a child to suck their tongue, you need to determine the reasons.
A few simple tips will help parents.
- Spend a lot of time with the crumbs. Do not be afraid to spoil him. Wear on handles, sing lullabies, caress and kiss him, gently talk with him.
- Take care of the relaxed atmosphere of your home. Loud unexpected sounds and screams can cause fright and nervous breakdown in the baby.
- Pay attention to the diet of the child: whether he receives enough food and fluid. Many mothers are inclined to believe that when breastfeeding, the baby does not need water - this is not true, especially if the milk is fat. After eating, provide the baby with clean boiled water. Drink it from a spoon or bottle.
- Play with a grown baby. Read books to him. Show rattles and clean rubber toys. Entertainment available for the age category will help you get distracted and not get hung up on addictions.
- Do not neglect the dummy. Do not force the pacifier on the baby, but do not shy away from it. Most people spent the first years of their life inextricably with a dummy, but did not spoil the bite and have good teeth. Do not listen to superstition, do as your baby is best.
Calm, only calm!
It happens that a kindergarten child sucks his tongue in a dream. This comes from excitement, frustration, or overexcitation. In this case, calm the baby, spend time with him before bedtime, pat on the head, sing a song. In no case do not scold the baby and do not be ashamed of him!
With a wise approach, attention, patience and unconditional love, every baby safely says goodbye to the habit of sucking his tongue.