Why is it that we are inspired to play games where we pretend to eat our babies? My daughter loves it when I make growling noises and pretend to eat her tummy. I’ve seen many people play these games, and a lot of people have shared that they like to nibble on baby’s cheeks. Is this some sort of primal mammalian game playing that is a natural part of child rearing, some sort of vestigial survival game?
It could just be the suspense and safe fear (like on a fairground ride or scary movie). My kid loved these games as a baby, but I could have tickled her (often did) instead of pretending to bite, or tossed her in the air.
Adrenaline buzz, maybe?
That’s from her side of things, for me it was just another excuse to be physically close - I’m not into cuddling as much as others are and this was a more fun style of contact. Ticklng, raspberies on tummy and feet, play wrestling, patty cake, monster attacks - all part of our early play.
I just remembered a couple of days ago that when she was about 3/4 months old, she would lie on the bed (too young to roll off) and watch me while I did the dishes. One day she got very frustrated, she had one foot in the air, pointing at me and made her ‘notice me, damn you!’ noises. I eventually worked out that she was asking for raspberries on her foot. I made the ppbbhht! sound from where I was and she erupted into hysterical laughter.
It was the first time she *instigated * a game between us and I fell totally and completely in love with her as a person as well as my baby.
I think it’s our way of showing the child how safe it is with us by making fun of how dangerous we could be.
I used to chase my daughter around the house saying “No! No! No!” in a demented Boris Karloff imitation. Or she’d take her little chalboard and pretend to be the (bossy) teacher and I had to be the class. But for me to simply be her playmate as an equal would have been unacceptable.
I think it’s a attempt to get real close, to ‘touch their soul’ so to speak, and having nothing to do with the destruction of the baby/child.
I have no idea. But my mum admits to still having the urge to bite me. But then my family is a little odd. And Irish. 
This is going to sound weird. I know that dogs are not babies. But I am often astonished at emergent human/dog behaviour that closely resembles human/human behaviour.
My dog likes to play with people by nibbling on them. This of course is not acceptable behaviour for a dog (they can easily be trained to stop) but it is extremely common. But my dog continues to love to play with other dogs by nibbling on them in the same way, and in fact he looooves it if you play that way with him - nibbling his face and the loose skin around his neck. (Not a lot of people are into this. But some are! Believe it or not.) For some reason he finds both nibbling and being nibbled on to be very satisfying, and it appears to me to be a really similar kind of satisfaction that people get from nibbling babies.
I don’t pretend to understand it, just MHO. But I suspect it is very deep in our hard wiring, something that we share with some other mammals.
Many mammal mothers lick their young routinely–dogs and cats for instance. I’ve never heard of any higher primate mothers licking their babies, but could what the OP refers to be a behavioral vestige from our pre-primate insectivore ancestors?
I’m thinking it’s a play on the word “good”, as in “You’re such a good baby, I want to eat you up!”.
I don’t have any kids, but I sometimes do this to my husband. I wonder if it’s some kind of mammalian bonding thing as you suggest. Maybe if you GQd it you’d get an informed response.
I have heard it said that mammals often play biting games with their young in order to teach them to fight and teach them about danger. Perhaps this is some form of the same. Pretending to be a predator so the child learns about predators in a safe environment.
I dunno, but I know Madeline’s tummy is particularly tasty. In fact, the Kiss Monster may have to go over there right now…
… Got lots of giggles!
In our family, the tradition was to blow fart noises on their belly, rather than pretending to eat them. It was touching and tickling and making rude, loud noises.
Why do we “eat” babies? Well, DUH…it’s because they’re so sweet! 
I mean, LOOK at this FACE!
Looking at my own baby playing behavior, it is a more “masculine” way of showing affection. My wife gives our 5 month old son soft kisses as she repeatedly softly says “mommy kisses! mommy kisses!” or she softly says “I love you” as she gently spells out the letters on his chest and cuddles with him. Both of these makes our son smile, coo, and giggle.
I, on the other hand, announce my presence from the other side of the room with something like “Who is that in my bed?! I am going to get you!” He starts to grunt, gasp, flail his arms and kick. I get on all fours and I growl and make other funny noises and he clasps his hands together and smiles. I then nuzzle my face between his neck and shoulder and he laughs as he tries to grab my face. I nibble on him and kind of rub my face side to side. I do it about 2 or 3 times, then lie next to him and we stare at each other eye to eye. My wife says we look like a wolf documentary. My best guess is that I am copying animal behavior that I have seen on TV and turning it into a play script that doesn’t seem too “feminine” as compared to my wife’s style of play.