Sensory - Chewing shirt

AZAudiGirl

Hello everyone, 

I haven't been on the bump in awhile but just remembered the great resource. My 4 year old started chewing his shirt about 2 months ago, can not and will not stop. I purchased him a couple silicone few necklaces but this kid prefers fabric. I make a necklace out of an old tee shirt but was wondering if any of you had any other ideas? Ideally, I would love to find a natural hemp type product but I am coming up empty. Also, are there any parents here who have a twice exceptional (2E) child that could provide any resources? Thank you!

Edit: I forgot to add the my son has SPD

funchicken

Ditto on figuring out what's causing it. DD1 has SPD, and she went through a hair chewing, putting hands in the mouth phase over the summer. The OT tried to redirect it to a chewy tube with no luck. She happened to have a dentist appt when this was going on, and the dentist said her six year molars were erupting. Once the top two came in the hair chewing stopped. We thought it was anxiety-driven, but it turned out to be sensory. Ibuprofen helped on the days when she just couldn't keep her hands/hair out of her mouth, and since it's not anxiety-driven it doesn't bother her if I remind her to stop. The bottom two molars are almost through, and she is sooooooo much better. I hope you can figure out what's at the root of it.

AZAudiGirl

Thank you for the feed back. He has a very high IQ and I've been told that his behavior is primarily anxiety driven by the phycologist, that he notices and pieces together things that are above his ability to rationalize or understand. I have to be very careful about the outside things he is exposed to (like news or even adult conversations in passing) because the questions do not stop and they are not topics a 4 year old should be discussing. He just flat out thinks differently and that is a real challenge. I personally suffer from tricotillamania and I am/was worried that telling him to stop or making him stop the chewing would cause the anxiety (if that is what is going on) to manifest differently. I got very good at hiding my behavior once it was rejected and ignored as being a problem from my family. I'll talk to his doctor a bit more about it, since it does't seem to be going anywhere any time soon. Again, thank you for the feedback, I really would like him to enter school next year without this behavior. 

Betsyrick20

My son likes to chew on his shirt too. He's 10. What I did so it wouldn't be so socially awkward (he has aspergers) is get him one of those braided sports necklaces, I see lots of kids who chew on those. He has gone through 2 of them, but we'll worth it

Justinlove

We are fighting the chewing issue as well. In D's case, she is NPO so she doesn't get the normal sensory input that we all get by just eating. I wish I had an answer.