If I Can Reach It, I Will Eat It

I'm astounded by what my son will put in his mouth. There isn't anything that turns him off, and if he can reach it, he will try to eat it. He finds the plastic table cloth cover on my dining room table very appetizing, because he is constantly trying to grab it and stuff it in his mouth. There is nothing, in fact, that is unappealing to him. A door knob, a soap dispenser, a piece of brown paper wrapping...if he can grasp it, in it goes. Scary? Yes. Funny? Yes.

I recently gave him some baby food that contained tart blueberries. I found it rather too sweet/sour for my taste, and he did too, based on the face he made when I fed it to him. That didn't stop him from trying to eat more, as he continued to make a prune face. It doesn't matter what it tastes like, it only matters that it gets into his mouth.

Needless to say, I have had to seriously baby-proof my apartment. A lost hair clip of mine can become a dangerous choking hazard for him, so everything is now locked up and in place. I also have to follow him around, because if I look away for a second, he will grab a cord to chew on (luckily, we are always around and have learned to become eagle-eyed). Nevertheless, I can't help but find it really funny that the time between an item reaching his fingertips to reaching his mouth can be counted in milliseconds. He doesn't have to even get a good look at it. It's in his hand. Nope, it's in his mouth.

Evolution-wise, it doesn't make any sense. Why on earth should babies desires to put everything in their mouth, without discrimination? It's not safe, it's not sensible, it serves no real purpose that I can think of. I guess it's one of those things you have to shrug about, as you follow your little one around, taking things out of his hands and putting them high up on shelves.