My 3 year old has a "tag obsession"?

Question

My daughter has a thing for tags. She will find the tag on her blanket and put her finger through it and then suck her thumb. We're working on the thumb sucking but I've never heard of a tag obsession. She even turns her clothes around so she can grab the tag in her clothes. She'll also put her hands in the back of her pants to hold the tag in her panties. Is this really odd?

Answer 1

I've never heard of it with tags before but it's probably a comfort thing. I always used to rub my baby dolls hair because it comforted me and my baby Lola likes to hold her bear and her blanket.

If you want her to stop with the clothes thing just cut the tags off. I would leave it on her blanket though because rubbing a blanket is less weird.

Answer 2

I've never heard of it before but I don't see anything wrong with it. My son has an ear obsession. He insists on rubbing his earlobes, my earlobes, his dads, grandma and grandpas...pretty much anyone's earlobes that he can get his little fingers on.

It is a comfort thing for them. I wouldn't worry too much about it. It should fade with time.

Try cutting the tags off of stuff and cutting the bottoms of the tags in her clothes so she can't put her fingers in them, if you really want her to stop.

Good luck!

Answer 3

That is so cute. There is nothing wrong with it. My daughter is obsessed with hair. She absolutely cannot sleep at all ever without stroking someone's hair. She will rub her feet on my hair, rub it on her face, and she's even tried taking her pants off and rubbing my hair on her butt! We always joke that she is either going to marry a rock star with long hair or become a L*****n. Maybe your daughter will be a fashion designer.

Answer 4

Your question makes me wonder whether your daughter might be holding on to the tag because the texture of it bothers her and holding on to it allows her to keep it from unexpectedly rubbing against her skin.

It might be that is is not why she's doing it, but when I was a child (actually, still now) I was very over-sensitive to tactile stimulation. Things like a seam in the toe of my sock or the tag in my shirt really bothered me. It took my parents years to figure out that I was physically uncomfortable because of those little things simply because I was so sensitive to them.

One of the things that I always did was to mess with the tags in my clothes, so I wonder if your daughter might be trying to express discomfort by always playing with her tags. This might be way off-base (your daughter might just have a really cute quirky obsession), but I just thought I'd mention it because it might help!

Answer 5

Ha!  Sounds like my younger sister, no joke!  She's always been into anything silky, including tags on blankets and clothes.  When she was your daughter's age (she's 13 now and still does it!) my mom had to cut the folded part of all tags apart cuz she would put her finger thru it and get it twisted and too tight on her finger!  She still will 'silk' tags on things, on the inseams of her shirts (where they are 'tagless' on the back, but it's on the seam inside at the bottom), and she has even gone after my own daughter's shirt tags - my daughter just turned 4.  It's weird to me cuz I personally am the opposite and can't stand silky things, but it's normal for my sister.  While it may not be totally common for most kids, it's definitely common for some!  Nothing to worry about...

Answer 6

My son does the same thing he looks for tags on his toys and on his blankets and holds him then put his two fingers in his mouth and sucks them (he does this instead of the thumb) don't worry about it!

Answer 7

It is odd but as far as I know doesn't mean any sort of psychological problem... its just an oddity.