Should I just duct tape his hands?

stacynikki

DS had several "sores" on his face as a result of habitual picking.  Someone asked me if he had chicken pocks!  I started getting on him about picking his face and all of them have cleared up except for one.  It's been a month now and he has this one sore on his cheek that he picks picks picks and will most likely scar.  I resorted to timeouts yesterday for everytime he picked it.  This was after weeks of constant "Stop Picking" over and over and over again.  It helped some but I'm at a loss. 

I asked his pedi about it but he didn't seem concerned.  What can I do to get him to stop?  I told the director (who was working the dropoff room this morning) that if she saw him picking his face to make him stop so it has a chance to heal.  She said she would tell the other teachers as well.  But how can I get him to stop doing this?  It's going to leave a terrible scar if he doesn't stop.

amiamish

Will he let you put a baid-aid over it? Does it help to trim his nails down short?

stacynikki

He's allergic to the adhesive on bandaids.  His nails are as short as I can possibly get them!  I cut them all the time because of this very reason! 

amiamish

Dang!

KoriBrett

My DH did that as a kid (2nd grade?) but with his hair, he had a huge bald patch on his head for the longest time.  His is Tourette's related though, hair pulling is a tic believe it or not LOL

Sometimes they really can't help it, like DH - is there any way you can distract him long enough for it to heal, or give him anything to fiddle with when bored, anything to keep his hands busy ?  Would he keep mittens or gloves on at all ?? 

stacynikki

No, Kori, he wouldn't keep them on.  It doesn't help that he's a habitual thumb sucker.  So when I get on him about picking with his right hand he starts in with his left hand while he's sucking his thumb. 

KoriBrett

Yeah, I hear ya on the thumb.  DD does her hair w/one hand, thumb w/the other. 

Sorry, I hope he stops soon!

bugmommy

This is sort of a strange idea but is he allergic to those silicon "bandages" that you use to heal scars?  I just bought one a couple of days ago to put on a burn and it doesn't seem to have any adhesive - its sort of like those Lily Padz things for nursing.  However, it does adhere really well and you can cut it to size.  It also would help with the potential scarring.  Mine says you can leave it on up to 12 hours a day so you could take it off at night.  I would try either that or handing him a cooshie ball thing (the ones that have tentacles and you squish) everytime you see him doing it to see if its a sensory type thing.