As we all know that a newborn baby cannot communicate using a language, so he tries to express himself by utilizing different gestures like crying or eating hands. If your baby also shows such gestures, you might be wondering about the reasons behind it. However, in such a case, all you need to consider are the actual reasons for the baby aggressively eating hands and crying.
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In this article, I will provide you with some important facts about why babies use gestures like crying or eating hands. Plus, I will help you by providing you with some tips on how to react to your babies when they make such gestures. So, if you are going through the same problem then this article is going to be informative for you.
Reasons Why Baby Keeps Eating Their Hands And Crying
For those who are searching for answers to the question of why does my baby keep eating his hand and crying, here are given all the reasons. Chewing hands is common among babies whose ages range from 4 to 7 months. Sometimes the habit of chewing hands can be accompanied by a habit of crying. However, the other few reasons why babies develop these habits are given below.
1. Baby Is Hungry
Recent studies in the field suggest that if your baby is eating hands and is crying, the baby is most likely hungry. Babies feel the sensation of hunger and they understand inherently that something has to be eaten which naturally goes through the mouth to satisfy their hunger. Eating hands means that the baby wants to eat. In addition to eating hands, babies use crying as a signal to communicate about their hunger.
2. For Entertainment
Have you ever wondered how babies entertain themselves? If not, let me tell you. Famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud argues that babies while going through the “oral stage” take great pleasure in playing with their oral cavity. As far as crying is concerned, although some experts in the field claim that even crying can also be used for this purpose, the nature of this claim is disputed.
3. Sickness
Usually eating hands for a baby is normal. However, eating hands aggressively and crying might be a sign of some kind of illness. If your baby is constantly showing these symptoms, you should probably consult a doctor. It is quite common in babies that they cry out of pain.
The answers to the question of why is baby constantly eating her hands vary from situation to situation. They might be one or more of the reasons I discussed above in the article. In other cases, the reasons might include producing soothing effects, teething, and some other unknown factors.
How To Deal With Your Babies When They Aggressively Eat Hands?
If your baby is aggressively eating hands and you think it is getting worrisome, you need to feed him right away. To your surprise, I must tell you that in more than half of the cases, breast-feeding works___ or in particular situations bottle feeding depending upon the method you use to feed your baby.
Secondly, if this doesn’t work and you suspect that your baby might be ill, you should not waste time showing him to the doctor. The reason behind it is that in the case you ignore it, it might lead to more severe consequences. However, you should also keep in mind that most of the time the causes are trivial therefore you should not panic.
But most importantly, you need to understand that keeping your baby clean and germ-free is important if he has such habits. Otherwise, the baby would get diseases through sucking hands.
Do Babies Enjoy Eating Their Hands?
It is still valid to ask what does it mean when your baby eats their hands. As I already talked about it above in the article babies greatly take pleasure in eating their hands, sucking hands is likely the only source of entertainment for babies. Since most of us know that babies have limited access to entertainment, this explanation seems satisfactory.
However, if you are still unsatisfied with this explanation, you should read Sigmund Freud’s theory of personality development. According to his theory, babies go through a personality development stage where all their psycho-sexual pleasure is focused at one point which in the babies’ case is the mouth. Thus your baby sucks his hands because he gets a lot of pleasure doing it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, let me tell you some final words regarding why your baby eats their hands and cries. They do this to signal that they are hungry, unhappy, or at least uncomfortable. In other cases, your baby sucks his hand because he needs entertainment. However, on some rare occasions, he might be ill. Lastly, you are advised not to panic because it is quite normal for babies to eat their hands and cry.