Chew Toys

Baby Jed discovered ten exciting new chew toys recently. Commonly known as "fingers," their warm chewy goodness seems irresistible to our little cannibal son. A few days ago, as I took a walk with Baby in the front pack, his usual grunt with every step was punctuated by the occasional cough. When the cough came fairly often, I peeked under the hood to see what was the matter.

Apparently Jed has discovered that though these fingers taste quite good at the tip of the tongue, they taste much better when you shove them way, way back into the throat. Fingers extended, he sticks his whole fist in his mouth, rooting around like there's some buried treasure down in his trachea.

These explorations are always, without fail, accompanied by a gag, retch, and a few coughs to clear out the spit and fingernails he may have left behind. In shock, Jed gazes at his fingers. Yikes! Those finger things are dangerous! Maybe I shouldn't.... hey, look at how delicious that pointer finger looks. I'll just take a taste. Hmmm.... let's try the whole hand!

Ten seconds later, he gags again.

This is repeated approximately 4,598 times a day. He never seems to bore of the finger sucking, and he never seems to put two and two together.

My child has a very healthy vomit reflex, I'm happy to report. And I just let him keep on gagging.