My son is just over a year old. He has developed a pretty bad habit of chewing on the crib rails.. and he decided to pick the sides that I can't put the plastic guards on because they are curved similar to a table leg type design. I've tied some cloth diapers around the spots that he seems to favor.. it literally looks like a beaver has chewed on it at this point. I don't have the money to go out and buy anything special, but what I want to know is can this hurt him? I don't know if he has swallowed any of the wood or not. He doesn't cry when he eats or anything, but I am still worried. Any answers would be appreciated.
Thanks for the quick answers, everyone. I've done what I could to keep him from biting it, and I've always given him toys in his crib.. He enjoys chewing on them just as much as he enjoys throwing them across the room. I won't worry about it, I guess. Thanks again!
I feel your frustration! The child I babysit has destroyed my crib. My daughter NEVER did this!! Now for my next child, I feel like my crib is majorly flawed! I put blankets over the edges, but the child just pulled them down. We had some kind of tape in the house that's skinny and thick...not sure what kind it is, but I put that on the crib to try to protect it from getting more ruined. It seems to be working.
funny, my daughter did this too. there are some *lovely* teeth marks where she scraped the dark wood stain off. We told her to stop if we saw her do it and gave her some other things to do in the crib. or if nap was over, then we got her out. No side effects for the kid ;-)
you can get that nasty-tasting nail stuff and paint the crib rails with it! but honestly, i'm sure it's a phase.
khairete
S.
Wow thats a tough one. I would think the splinters could cause a problem but seems to be ok for now. Is he teething? Have you tried giving him a toy to chew on while in bed so that he doesn't chew on the crib? I would put what ever toy he likes to chew on a lot in his bed for naps and bed time and let him know he can chew on that instead of the crib. I'm glad my son never did this, we do have some messed up books and puzzles though. Good luck, I hope it helps.
LOL! I rember when my daughter used to do that and she was around the same age. I asked the doctor about that and he said that she was probably teething..I would'nt worry about it and he will probably grow out of it, I no mine did, she's 10 now!
How old is your crib? My concern with the crib chewing would be that your son would be ingesting toxins from the paint or stain on the wood. Eating wood itself wont hurt him. He might get a splinter in his mouth but then he would probably stop chewing on the crib. The concern is that the stain would have lead or other heavy metals in it. If it is a new crib in the last few years then it is probably fine because they took all harmful components out of stain for baby furniture. If you want your son to stop chewing on the crib you could put hot sauce on the areas he likes to chew or some of the bitter stuff they sell to help kids stop sucking their thumb. Both are fine for him to eat but not pleasant hopefully it will deter him from continuing to chew.
I wouldn't say that its a big deal. My mom had six kids and we all chewed on her headboard, that is now 35+ years old. It never hurt any of us. Not really sure why any of us did it, but we all did. Not really sure how to stop it, but I wouldn't worry too much.
