My 3-1/2 year old son has been diagnosed as developmentally delayed,
and is receiving county assistance with speech and language
development as well as fine motor.  What hasn't been addressed--and
what is of increasing concern to me--is his continuous putting of
non-food objects in his mouth.  He often will put a small car, or toy
in his mouth (as well as his fingers). Any thing small ends up in his
mouth, to be held there, or chewed on.  Also, he will --impulsively,
it appears--put his mouth on strange things--as if he needs to feel or
taste them--such as the outside car mirror, the recessed part of the
lock on the bathroom door.  He doesn't do this hourly--or daily
(unlike the putting if things in his mouth0 but often enough that I am
concerned and puzzled.  Except for the fact that he is socially
developmentally more toddler-ish in somce repects, he seems to be a
happy, normal child.  Should this behavior worry me?  What could it
mean?  Should I seek the help of a professional, and if so, what kind?
 Hope you can help with some info!  Many thanks.

Dear Connie

Thank-you. 

It's kind of you to suggest I post my comment as an answer. I'm so
glad you found it useful.
 
I started out looking for evidence to back up my reaction that there
was no need to start thinking about mouthing as a symptom of some real
difficulty. Your son isn't even 4 yet!

Two important points are: 
1) Your mother's instincts tell you he's mostly "happy, normal".
2) The professionals don't seem to be concerned. 
(But do keep on checking with them from time to time.)

Exploring the world with your mouth can be quite "normal" at your
son's age, and so is sucking for comfort, chewing for tension relief,
and just plain mouth play. The research I pointed out in the comment
confirms that some kids keep on doing it - a lot - after toddlerhood.

There's not a whole lot more online that's really relevant, but there
is a rather strict article about mouthing and behaviour modification
(not my style). For me it just confirms there's plenty of post-3
mouthing going on!

"Age 3 and Older
[...]
You can also use a technique called behavior modification to help
reduce your child's mouthing behavior."
http://www.viahealth.org/disease/leadpoisoning/lead2.htm

The Harvard research I mentioned before refers to a very small study
including two 4-year-olds, which specifically mentions "hard surfaces"
(like your son and the car mirror?):

"the objects most frequently mouthed included skin (primarily hands),
hard toys, and hard surfaces."

Quoted in:
An Observational Study of Object Mouthing Behavior by Young Children.
Pediatrics, Jan, 2001, by Daland R. Juberg, Kathleen Alfano, Robert J.
Coughlin, Kimberly M. Thompson
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0950/1_107/69651827/p1/article.jhtml


I did look for material on learning with all the senses and the body
in general, but just came up with this piece about "Learning with your
whole body":
 
"for young children the world is a place to be tasted, touched,
climbed on, smelled and heard as well"
Learning with your whole body
http://www.zooscape.com/cgi-bin/maitred/YellowLoop/questw10000031/critiquet000000

Do please ask if there's anything in this that you'd like me to try and clarify.

I wish you and your son every happiness. 

Best Wishes - Leli


Just for tidiness here's the original comment:

A UK study looked into mouthing behaviour, and came up with some
figures which may interest you.

The two columns of figures I've picked out are for 3 and 4 year olds and give:

1) the maximum amount of time any child in the study spent mouthing
(all children with no particular problems or developmental delays)

2) the mean (average) amount of time for all the children studied aged 3 and 4

3 years old
===========

          maximum                 mean
          -------                 ----
Soothers  about 5 hours           48 mins
Fingers   about 3 hours           34 mins
Toys      1 and a half hours      11 mins
Other     1 and a half hours      15 mins


4 years old
===========

Soothers  about 5 hours           16 mins
Fingers   about 3 hours           19 mins
Toys      20 minutes               3 mins
Other     1 and a quarter hours   10 mins


So you can see there's a lot of variation in so-called "normal" behaviour.

By the way, the average 5-year-old, according to this study, spends
nearly an hour a day mouthing something or other.


This study also says:

"Non-nutritive sucking (e.g.sucking on a dummy/soother) is thought to
be adopted by infants as a response to frustration, as a need for
contact, or as a part of the child?s psychological development in
exploring the world around them through touching and tasting objects
with the mouth and tongue."  See the study in more detail at:
http://www.dti.gov.uk/homesafetynetwork/pdf/mouthing.pdf
(Adobe Acrobat Reader needed to view the document.)

And:
"None of the children had any physical or psychological problems which
would either impair or exacerbate the natural tendency to mouth."
http://www.dti.gov.uk/homesafetynetwork/pdf/mouthsum.pdf

A Harvard study also found:

"Approximately 300 children showed a wide range of mouthing behaviors,
from essentially none at all to a relatively large amount. "
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press01082001b.html.html

Of course it would be wise to ask your doctor or other child
development professional about this, but if they are not concerned,
why not wait a while and see if your son starts to grow out of it?



Search strategy:

mouthing study
mouthing research
mouthing explore
mouthing senses
mouthing learning body

all phrases combined with:

child OR children

and/or with:

"3 OR 4 OR 5 years old"
"3 OR 4 OR 5 year olds"

Well researched, thorough, comprehensive, informative and thoughtful: 
Can't ask for more than that!  Many thanks!

Hi cmdavis,

While the commenter above may be on the right track, I'm not entirely
convinced that your son is suffering from pica, as he's only chewing
on things, not attemting to actually consume them.

It's pretty common for small children to put objects in their mouths
(the mouth being a great sensory organ).  It's normal behavior for
babies and toddlers to gnaw just about anything that interests them. 
If it helps, my eldest (who is now 12, reads this site regularly, and
will likely excoriate me for relating this publicly) thought it might
be interesting to sample the contents of the cat box when he was just
over 2 years old.  At that age, he also chewed on doorknobs, the cat,
and anything else that happened to catch his attention.  His doctor
never suspected pica or any other disorder, and in fact laughed
uproariously at the kitty box incident, relating how his daughter had
done the same thing at that age.

Since your son has special needs, you should consult with your regular
pediatrician to make sure that he's just doing the usual toddler
things a little bit later.  Since s/he knows your son's needs, s/he's
going to have a better grasp of the situation than we will.

Sounds like a typical kid to me, though!

--Missy <-- mom of two

Dear cmdavis

I too was thinking you very likely don't need to worry about this, and
wanted to tell you about a study which looked at young children and
their mouth play/exploration/comfort.

The jargon used for this is "mouthing".

A UK study looked into mouthing behaviour, and came up with some
figures which may interest you.

The two columns of figures I've picked out are for 3 and 4 year olds and give:

1) the maximum amount of time any child in the study spent mouthing
(all children with no particular problems or developmental delays)

2) the mean (average) amount of time for all the children studied aged 3 and 4

3 years old
===========

          maximum                 mean
          -------                 ----
Soothers  about 5 hours           48 mins
Fingers   about 3 hours           34 mins
Toys      1 and a half hours      11 mins
Other     1 and a half hours      15 mins


4 years old
===========

Soothers  about 5 hours           16 mins
Fingers   about 3 hours           19 mins
Toys      20 minutes               3 mins
Other     1 and a quarter hours   10 mins


So you can see there's a lot of variation in so-called "normal" behaviour.

By the way, the average 5-year-old, according to this study, spends
nearly an hour a day mouthing something or other.


This study also says:
"Non-nutritive sucking (e.g.sucking on a dummy/soother) is thought to
be adopted by infants as a response to frustration, as a need for
contact, or as a part of the child?s psychological development in
exploring the world around them through touching and tasting objects
with the mouth and tongue."  See the study in more detail at:
http://www.dti.gov.uk/homesafetynetwork/pdf/mouthing.pdf
(Adobe Acrobat Reader needed to view the document.)

And:
"None of the children had any physical or psychological problems which
would either impair or exacerbate the natural tendency to mouth."
http://www.dti.gov.uk/homesafetynetwork/pdf/mouthsum.pdf

A Harvard study also found:

"Approximately 300 children showed a wide range of mouthing behaviors,
from essentially none at all to a relatively large amount. "
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press01082001b.html.html

Of course it would be wise to ask your doctor or other child
development professional about this, but if they are not concerned,
why not wait a while and see if your son starts to grow out of it?

Warm wishes to you and your family - Leli

I appreciate the time all of you took to respond to my concerns. Can't
thank you enough.

Kelly's comments, however, -- and I realize this was not an
"answer"--were disturbing in their certainty.  You left little room
for doubt as to the diagnosis.  While you MAY be correct--although
having read as much as I could on pica, I suspect this is not the
case--I think tempering future comments in a less authoratative way
would not only be more appropriate, but easier on the psyche of the
author.  I do thank you, though, and have learned a great deal now
about this previously unheard of condition.

Missy--Your third response to me, and always, always, thoughful,
re-assuring and informative.

Leli--Not only did I find your answers well-researched and
informative, they had the added advantage of being very re-assuring
and comforting. Of course, each and every time I pose a question about
my now-son (recently adopted), I wait with some trepidation for the
answer. Because I am new to this--and fairly senior--I bring to this
new mystery of mothering more than the usual anxiety and
hyper-vigilence, I think,  than the "average" (whatever that means)
mother would.  I realize that one can't just look for/hope for
feel-good answers.  But when they have some validity to them AND they
make you feel better, well you can't beat that!  The site you provided
was very helpful to me. Please enter this as an answer:  you have my
fee, that's for sure, along with my thanks!

Connie

Thank-you very much for your kind words.

Good luck with the "mystery of mothering"!
Not sure the mystery ever entirely goes away.
(And two of my three are grown-up.)

All best wishes - Leli