Gum for SPD. Gum with sugar vs gum with aspartame.

wino2006

DD1 frequently uses gum at school to keep her mouth occupied so she can focus and concentrate. I have been using bubble gum with sugar, but I am worried about the effects it will have on her teeth. It seems my only alternative is sugar free which has aspartame and I would like to avoid that if possible. Are they any somewhat "natural" options? I know that natural gum sounds like an oxymoron, but surely there has to be a better option. The sugared gum has food dyes and other nasty additives in it too. 

MirandaHobbes

I've thought about this much as well- DS chews gum very regularly (too, regularly, imho) in his ASD classes. They chew sugar gum because it is "chewier" and offers more resistance than the sugar-free variety. His OT told me to double-up on the sugar free if I go that route. Our dev. pedi was very anti-sugar gum and said to only chew sugar free unless we want a mouth full of cavaties. He didn't express concern over aspartame, although I know that if I chew too much of it I get headaches.

But to answer your question, no, sorry, I know of no other natural varieties.

kcisthebombdotcom

I'm not aware of any natural types of gum, but what I would do in that scenario is send my child with sugar gum and send her to school with a toothbrush so she could brush at lunch and then make sure she brushed her teeth after school. While sugar gum has food dyes/crap in it, I'm guessing it's a lot better than the aspartame.

realisticdreams

We spoke about this today when P was doing her observation.  We have some of the chewelry but P won't use it.  Her hands are awfully torn up from biting her fingers and chewing on her shirts.  So chewing gum came up as an option, which we've only given her once or twice. 

wino2006

-auntie-:

I wouldn't want a kid on spectrum chewing sugared gum unless it was one piece for the entire day- as a group they have poor dental care as a function of poor fine motor skills and sensory issues. FWIW, DS's old pedodontist felt parents should be doing bedtime toothbrushing for all kids whose handwriting isn't beautiful.

There are other options like Glee Gum and Xlear which are sweetened with xylitol. Glee is even GF/CF.

https://www.gleegum.com/index.htm?c1=GAW_SE_NW&source=BRND&kw=glee_gum_exm&cr5=15928219568&gclid=CPjqiZas6rICFVSd4Aodx24AZg

In a preschool setting, chewelry or even aquarium tubing are safe choices for joint compression. Other approaches could be balance chairs, Sit'n'Fit disks and movement breaks.

 

 

Thanks! Will try the glee gum. She is in K so we are trying to use tools that are more inconspicuous. She does use the bouncy seat, hand fidgets and the teacher gives her a lot of motor/sensory breaks. We had a glowing report on her dental hygiene at her last dental appt. I hope it stays that way!

lesleytaylor

https://www.vitacost.com/xlear-spry-dental-defense-system-gum-sugar-free-cinnamon-100-pieces-1