Chewing on anything or mouthing objects

[mc31]

Just anothe one............

 

C has since i can remember chewed on anthing... plastic toy animals, books, even some of her soft toys have got sucked or chewed ears/tail

 

take for instance the books in our house (her ones that i leave in her reach) are not square anymore they actually look round!

 

we also have a whole lot of farm animals that are missing legs, tails where they have finally given up and the teeth have gone through them (its wonderful when u tread on a cows leg... kinda painful) or they just look a bit worse for wear!!

 

ive tried telling her not to chew on her animals, books and all i get is a blank look or nooooooooooooo!!!!! because we now know what this word means lol

 

communication is very limited by the way.

im just wondering if its sort of comforting and thats why she does it.

 

any ideas?

[Tez]

A is 14 and still does this. For him it's a sensory thing and he just needs to do it. The Occupational Therapist said it is common in autism.

[lil_me]

One thing I will say, when I stopped my son chewing on objects, clothes etc etc well some objects he still has the occasional nibble usually on clothes now, he started chewing on himself more and biting me more. He will mark himself when biting he does it that hard. He's sat as I type with his hand in his mouth, all 5 fingers in and biting on his hand, so always be aware if you stop one behaviour in a child on the spectrum it usually starts/increases another one.

Edited October 7, 2005 by lil_me

[mc31]

thanks again

 

Your all helping to clear alot up that has been spinning round and round in my head, my little notes/reminders surely can all be screwed up!

 

thankyou!!

[call me jaded]

MC

 

I think you need to read 'The Out of Sync Child' By Carole Kranowitz -sp?- It explains all the sensory stuff you are describing.

[lisann]

Not got any ideas how to stop it but C used to eat anything he could get hold of books, bark, jigsaws,POO, paper, stones even pennies!!!!

 

He now has nearly stoped that but does like to mouth objects and lick things ( Nice not )

 

[lil_me]

I remember the alarm on my sons teachers face when he started school, he was licking, kissing and basically 'mouthing' his teachers arms and hands, she said she was scared every time that he was going to bite her. As soon as she was seeing to another child he would start it again, just to try to get her attention back. He then went through a phase of having to kiss everyone, which the schools said was inappropriate so we had to stop him doing that, wish I had ignored them now as he rarely is affectionate now.

[mc31]

Thanks all for replies

 

lil_me sorry to hear that, my daughter can be very affectionate, but it is on her terms only.

 

On going to playgroup, one little girl (her friend is suppose) gave C a hug, now every morning C looks for her friend, then runs over and gives her a hug. its pretty sweet!!

[darky]

yes my daughter does this too, she is 6. ive been told same as someone else here, that if you try and stop that then it might be replaced with a worse behavior. i know its hard though as sometimes it makes me feel quite sick when i see what shes nibbled,sucked,chewed on! not looking forward to winter, she likes to lick the frost from cars etc. still she has improved a little, she used to eat her own doo.

[something vague]

Some of the children that I work with still chew and mouth items. We provide plastic tubing- a bit like aquarium tubing but it's bright colours and can be found in sensory catalogues. It is very durable, never gets chewed through or broken up and can be washed and sterilized regularly.

 

We find it very useful for our young people and allows them to satisfy their need to chew. I think it is very hard to stop a behaviour like this because there's always a reason for it so the best you can do is replace it with something more acceptable.

 

Hope this is useful to some of you