4 year-old obsessed with chewing gum...or whatever she can find

Our four year old daughter...well she is bright,beautiful, intelligent, and ever since seeing her "favorite" (probably the first person I ever noticed she really wanted to emulate) teacher chew gum she is fixated on it.  The teacher left the school a few  months ago, but the behaviour has continued.  I have found plastic, paper, bandaids...and the most disgusting to me....old gum she finds places (not hers...like out in restaurants and parks) in her mouth.  Its like she loses all reason and the ability to make a correct choice when it comes to gum and things in her mouth.  I tried letting her have gum every now and then as a reward for good choices and days at schools....but it does not dissuade her with chewing other things.  I am afraid she is going to make herself really sick....and I am about as grossed out as I can imagine (at this point).  One thing that makes me think she knows its wrong is that she does not hide it and on occasion has actually brought it to my or my husband's attention.  How am I supposed to react to finding things in her mouth once again?  As we speak, for the most recent incident, she called me into the bathroom stall at a restaurant and asked me to get something out of her teeth....it was someone else's gum that she found in the stall.  She didn't have to point it out to me but she did.

What is going on?

I would appreciate any input as to how to address this with her so she "gets" it.

[margypops]

I think it is getting her the attention she' wants/needs' perhaps you are over reacting , yes it does sound gross, but try playing it down make no mention anymore if she calls it to your attention just say ..'okay ,yuck'..then no more ..once she knows its not going anywhere it will stop...so focus on playing games with her, she feels a void to be doing this, has she a younger sibling who could be getting more attention, get Dad involved with fun and games, outside activities, board games are great she is coming up the the age to enjoy them.Focus on her positive side and praise her when you see her doing something right .

[Athena_M]

It would probably be safer and more hygenic to just buy her a pack of gum and let her chew it as often as she wants to.  Hopefully doing this will take the obsession of trying other things in her mouth.  She is probably really curious about putting objects in her mouth.  If you let her chew gum as much as she wants she will probably get sick of it after a while.