Chewing/ eating clothing

[joybed]

Hi all marcus has always chewed the cuffs to his school jumpers. i know this means he is stressed and we have just kind of accepted it but now the problem is getting much more serious. Previously it was confined to school jumpers the cuffs would be literally eaten away and it was one of his characteristics he became known by, if he wore something short sleeved he didn,t do it so summer wasn,t a problem and his home clothes were never eaten. Recently however he has started chewing everything, his school jumper fell apart this morning as he had chewed it so much and he chews his t-shirts at the neck. Everything has holes in it and he looks sruffy all the time. He even chews his shoes and bottoms of his trousers. On red nose day it was non uniform and he had nothing that wasn,t holey to wear so i bought him a cheap but nice t-shirt and we had a chat about him not chewing it. It came home with huge holes in it. It is embarrassing as it looks like we are dragging him up but even more worrying is the fact that he swallows the fabric god knows what this is doing to him. He also smells all the time of stale saliva. The other concern is his sister was upset the other day as he had chewed and eaten her hair. I explained to him that this was invading her personal space but he didn,t get it he said if he wanted to eat her hair she should let him. Lydia has been told she must tell us straight away if this happens again. We have tried everything to stop this chilli etc on his clothes, reward for not chewing, punishing him by removing computer etc, nothing works. I know he is stressed but I can no longer deal with this level of destroying things. The ASD team suggested something else chewy but could only recommend chewy tubes which are huge and not practical for school. He won,t chew gum and can,t at school anyway. I read somewhere supplements can help wit PICA but can,t remenber which and no longer have access to the site i read it on. Any tips.

[baddad]

Hi Joybed -

 

My son used to do cuffs and the 'hems' of jumpers but nothing as severe as your son. I never put it down to stress as such, just a combination of 'habit' and mild obssessive behaviour (stimming - though I hate the term). The pattern for my son was that a pattern of behaviour would emerge, and while he/we worked to address that something else would emerge instead (hair twiddling became a biggy), so the solution was to redirect that energy/need into something less problamatic...

For cuffs, i bought him wrist bands (sweat bands, as worn by tennis playesr) and he wore/chewed these. When they got worn I just replaced them rather than the jumper.

for the hair twiddling I bought him two little 'bratz' dolls with long hair and pulled their heads off: he would keep a head in his pocket and stim that hair when he felt the 'urge' (beware though, if your child is older - as the pocket movements could be misunderstood).

Blu-tac works very well for hands that need keeping busy, as do rubber bands and 'worry beads' bracelts.

'Sensory boxes' work well too, or maybe a keyring rubiks cube?

 

You'll not cure the need to 'stim' but with time and a lot of 'lateral thinking' you can/will find alternatives that can fulfill the need in ways that are less problematic/eye-catching.

 

Hope that helps

 

L&P

 

BD

[bid]

My DS was like this into his teenage years with his clothes (great wet patch around the neck of t-shirts). At his residesi special school he was given chewing gum as an alternative, and lastly in desperation his own special pencils to chew to protect everyone else's!

 

Just to reassure you, now he is heading towards 20 he doesn't chew his clothes anymore, but he does still chew things until they are eaten up! Pen lids, pens, a boho rubbery bracelet, the plastic clip used to seal food bags shut, etc, etc...

 

I've always thought it's a combination of a retained infant reflex, that can be worsened by stress. I think that he probably stopped himself with his clothes as he got older.

 

Bid

Edited March 24, 2009 by bid

[Suze]

You can buy special chewy plastic tubes that wil give your son an alternative to chewing his clothing.They work really well, I know of a child that likes to use them when concentrating.

[Sooze2]

My son has just gone back to chewing, he's 9 and stopped for a while but is now eating his school ties again with gusto! The school say his behaviour is getting better but I now feel that he is starting to keep all the tension in again and so thats why the chewing started.

 

His tie looked like a consetina this morning, it was in a terrible state. I don't know how to stop it though.

[Sally44]

School need to look at their environment and the supports he has to make sure his stress and anxiety levels are not off the scale. Too many times a support will be withdrawn when a child has demonstrated that they can do something without the support. But many times it is a cumulative effect of stress and anxiety and so keeping strategies in place can help reduce these types of behaviours.

Then is he being seen by an Occupational Therapist. Does he have other sensory issues. Sometimes one sense can compensate for another one, and an OT may need to try lots of different things to see if any help at all. Having something to hold sometimes helps, wearing a weighted piece of clothing sometimes helps, giving the child extra breaks or extra sensory breaks can help, re-directing etc. A dedicated TA should be aware of things that increase this behaviour and should support him during those times eg. school assembly, dinnertimes, whole class time etc.

As your child is verbal try to get some feedback from him for the motivator to this behaviour. For example my son runs through film dialogue alot and re-runs films in his head. He does this when stressed or unsure what he should be doing, when bored, because he likes to. So there could be different reasons behind the same behaviour on different occasions.