Sticking fingers down the throat

[maestramommy]

Lately Dora has discovered that lovely thing of putting her fingers down her throat to gag. I think she did it by accident, then kept doing it, and when I told her to stop and took her fingers out, she decided to keep doing it. Sometimes she just does it when she's bored.

However, last night she did it during a meltdown. Dh and I have traded nighttime duty a few times so he can give Arwyn a bottle, and I do Dora's bedtime routine. Suddenly, she no longer wants Dh to put her to bed. Well, last night he had to, and she was howling the whole time. Escalating into screaming, screeching, like the kind that makes you cough. Then I heard the retching sound. Later Dh told me she started sticking her fingers down her throat. At first he was shocked because he's never seen it happen before. Then he just stepped back and looked and waited. She did it twice, once on the changing pad, and once in the tub. So he figured if she threw up, it might be uncomfy for her, but wouldn't be hard to clean up.

I'm pretty sure other kids do this, but during a tantrum? Should we just ignore her when she starts doing this? And what's up with suddenly wanting only me at bedtime? Dh has been putting her to bed since she was a baby, and she's been fine with it. But now she comes back from their nightly walk and suddenly starts clinging to my leg for dear life. I can't even walk around without her permanently attached to my butt!

[sidmand]

DS stuck his fingers down his throat and did it until he threw up (nice, huh?). He did seem to do it either when he was bored or he wanted attention he wasn't getting. I also think (since some people suggested it and it made sense) that he also may have been teething when it happened.

I would have liked to ignore it, but after the throwing up (in his crib when he just had way too many red things for lunch!) I was afraid to let it go too far. We would tell him not to do it and try and take his fingers out of his mouth (and try not to make a big deal about it). So far it's only happened a handful of time. I don't think it ever happened during a tantrum though, so I'm not sure about that.

I know kids go through a couple of stages of separation anxiety. Maybe Dora has hit this second stage? And maybe she's figured out Arwyn isn't going anywhere and that's her way of dealing with it.

Debbie
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[maestramommy]

I remember reading here that is sometimes another stage of sep. anxiety right before two. It would make sense, considering the bizarre behavior that's been happening the last couple of weeks. Everytime her speech therapist comes she starts to whimper, then cry, and hangs onto my leg. I can't even detach her to walk. For a while I was staying until she was engaged, then slipping away, but it started to take longer and longer for that to happen, so today, I just explained about the fingers thing, then left. She howled of course, but got over it much more quickly than the other days. I'm in the apt, and she knows it, so it's not like I LEAVE. Then this thing with Dh doing her bedtime is just over the top. For now I'm putting her to bed every night only because Dh is still practicing with the bottle. But I have weekly rehearsals starting up in October. Hopefully she'll be over whatever it is that's bothering her. We went to the dentist yesterday and he saw no imminent signs of her last molars, but I do see her chewing on her fingers from time to time.

Dora's never actually thrown up while doing this. She just gags and makes the retching sound, but I *think* she's able to control it well enough not to throw up. She threw up once while crying a couple months ago, but that's it. She's had a very strong gullet since birth.

[Jenny_A]

DD went through a phase where she would stick her fingers down her throat. She was about 15 months old. She never did it during a tantrum, only when she got bored. Mainly she did it in the car. She would make herself throw up. It only lasted a couple of weeks but at the time I worried about it. I would distract her into forgetting to do it or ignore her completely. That seemed to work.

I bet it will pass pretty quickly. It's not fun to make yourself sick!

Jenny