My son is eating the furniture

[Ms B]

. . . or at least chewing on it. DS is pulling up and cruising around and has figured out that his mouth is at the same height as our family room end tables, so he wants to use them as his new teethers. :shrug:

Clearly this is not a good development, either for DS or the end tables. Any suggestions that do not involve moving the tables out of the room? We do need a place to put drinks, DS's bottles, etc. when we are in the room.

[Giantbear]

put a little pepper on them, he will stop

[Ms B]

put a little pepper on them, he will stop

Just ground pepper? How do you get it to adhere?

[rlu]

well, bitter apple worked with the dogs. Nasty stuff though. All the chain pet stores carry it.

eta: I'm kidding, I don't know that it is safe for human consumption but it is supposed to be harmless to dogs.

[Philly Mom]

My DD is the same age I think and she was doing this when she ate, she would put her mouth around the whole table and chew it. She also did it to our coffee table. For some reason, a couple weeks ago she just stopped. I found there was nothing I could do to stop her, but had to assume it was a phase that would pass. Perhaps giving your DS a cold wet blanket to chew on would act as a substitute.

[TwoBees]

Make sure you always have a teether handy and redirect to the teether. DD likes to chew on things (still), and this is what we do. We reinforce that X is not for chewing, and that if she want to chew, she can ask for a teether (with your younger DS, he may be too young to ask, but you can reinforce that teethers are for chewing, furniture is not).

I like these (http://funandfunction.com/arks-grabber-3-pack-p-508.html) a lot because they provide a nice chewing surface, but they're harder to get. These (http://www.buybuybaby.com/product.asp?SKU=16997030&RN=7124&) also worked well for DD, because they provided three different chewing textures.