DownSyn Forum

kctahoe · Posted: February 13 2010, 11:30 PM Post subject: Hand Chewing

Charlie is constantly chewing on his fingers, which almost always comes along with vocalizations. We have various chewy toys around the house for him, but mostly he stick with his hands (because they are convenient I think). Just wondering, how can we lessen this behavior? It is irritating for us to listen too, but it also inhibits him communicating meaningfully during play, and just kind of makes him stick out in a crowd, ya know. (oh, and the germs!) Thanks guys!
Kim

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Kim. Wife to Ray, Mommy to Charlie (DS), Calvin, and Miles.

lespring · Posted: February 14 2010, 12:06 AM Post subject:

UHG! This drives us CRAZY!!! For Angela, it comes and goes. We might see it 24/7 for weeks, then it disappears only to show up again months later.

We were out all day today, and on the way home she was falling asleep in the back of the car when we heard it. Both Dean and I said at the same time, "Crap! It's back!"

For her, when it does show up, its definitely related to fatigue or stress. It's very much the equivalent of thumb sucking for her. She has huge callouses on her thumb and index finger from it. And I don't know how she does it with her braces! She puts puts her finger between her cheek and teeth; I would think it would hurt with hr braces.

So, when it does show up, I use this stuff http://www.folica.com/MAVALA_Stop_for_d442.html

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Tigger · Posted: February 14 2010, 8:11 AM Post subject:

Talitha does this too. She virtually chews holes in her thumb and forefinger. It comes up in a blister and then it pops. She will stop for a few days because it hurts and as soon as it is better she starts again or she swaps hands and chews the other one. She does it more often when she is under stress or very tired.

I never thought to use nail biting stuff to stop her. I will get some and see if it works.

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momofrussell · Posted: February 14 2010, 12:27 PM Post subject:

Charlie have reflux??? Not that it's reflux related for every child, but it can be part of it...chewing the fingers that is. Russell is a finger sucker and chews on his fingers lots and has reflux. For him it's probably due to the reflux.

Can be a teething thing too....like with molars......

A.

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LinMac · Posted: February 14 2010, 12:45 PM Post subject:

Quote:

It's very much the equivalent of thumb sucking for her. She has huge callouses on her thumb and index finger from it

Robert is chewing his thumbs. He does it when he is in bed. And yes Leah I think its related to tirdness,teathing and sensory issues.
He doesn't do it in the day so I've not got a fix for it.
But he sure has big ugly thumbs!

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Momof6 · Posted: February 14 2010, 2:33 PM Post subject:

Austin doesn't do this yet...is this something I have to look forward to? UGH. Sorry I'm no help.

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Edensmama · Posted: February 14 2010, 2:52 PM Post subject:

Eden does this when she is falling asleep and when she is teething. And yes, she also vocalizes....aaaahhh, yaaaa, yaaah, yaahh. LOL. I assumed it would go away when she got all her teeth but now I'm wondering if it will continue. Time will tell...

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mary c · Posted: February 14 2010, 7:33 PM Post subject:

Anna does it to--we just give her gum to chew and that stops it for a while. We have in her IEP that she can chew gum in school and send in tons of sugarfree gum to the classroom so she can chew all day long if she needs to. If she doesn't have gum, then she will chew on her thumb or sleeve.

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lespring · Posted: February 14 2010, 9:06 PM Post subject:

UGH! I wish Angela would chew gum! She just doesn't get the idea of not swallowing it, and does so on the 2nd or 3rd chew. (Well, and now we can't even TRY because she has braces.)

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mary c · Posted: February 14 2010, 10:11 PM Post subject:

Our speech therapist "taught" her to chew gum. She would give her a piece, let her chew a few times, and then have her spit it out. Each time she would have her chew a couple more times until gradually she was chewing a half hour at a time. Sometimes she still swallows it, and I can't tell you how often I find pieces of gum just discarded (especially in the car!), but for the most part, she chews for 10 minutes and then spits it in the garbage.

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kctahoe · Posted: February 14 2010, 10:58 PM Post subject:

hmm... could be reflux related. He has been on reflux medication in the past, and the behavior did seem to increase around the time we discontinued medication... I think.

Maybe we will work on gum chewing. I like the idea of teaching him to chew like your therapist did for Anna, Mary. Thanks for sharing that info.

Oddly, Charlie's fingers and thumb have held up amazingly well considering the percent of the hours a day that he is chewing on them. I probably wouldn't be as worried about it if he did not vocalize, which drives me nuts. Maybe I have sensory overload for noises. Anyway, we are planning to buy the nail biting stuff, maybe a chewlery necklace to try, and now, perhaps some gum!

Thanks all for your input!

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Kim. Wife to Ray, Mommy to Charlie (DS), Calvin, and Miles.

lespring · Posted: February 15 2010, 12:36 AM Post subject:

Angela doesn't vocalize when she does it. Instead she makes a lovely slurping/sucking noise. (said dripping with sarcasm!) A couple of her friends on the swim team are still chewing on their fingers too.

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naomid · Posted: February 15 2010, 5:07 AM Post subject:

Callum chews on his thumb, a lot! he's got little sores in the corners of his mouth from doing it. We say "fingers out" and he removes them but then they're back in 30 seconds later. It's usually a tiredness, boredom, not doing anything else with his hands thing.

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SherryinWI · Posted: February 15 2010, 10:59 AM Post subject:

Believe it or not my once extremely oral defensive boy is a thumb chewer and puts holes in them too!

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elizasmom · Posted: February 15 2010, 2:34 PM Post subject:

Eliza tends to do this when she is congested. So she does it a lot more in the wintertime. We use chewy tubes and she wears them on a string around her neck. I like the gum idea!

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hannah · Posted: February 15 2010, 2:45 PM Post subject:

Hannah chews on her thumb or pointer finger but it's only when she's sitting...as in watching TV or being read to. It drives us crazy!!!!! I need to buy what Leah recommends. OH.. and she does the vocalization part when she's tired but it worse when she's sick.

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lucky13 · Posted: January 09 2012, 5:23 PM Post subject:

i know this is an old thread. I did a search on "thumb sucking" since Luke's Kindergarten teachers are concerned he does this in class. Mostly they are concerned that he is stressed out and feel sorry for his thumb. I did want to mention we did put that nail biting stuff on his thumbs on friday. He kept chewing on them, threw up and came home early.
We bought pretzel rods which he enjoyed all weekend. No thumb chewing over the weekend and I sent a bag to school.
on a seperate note....what activities would you suggest during class to reduce stress? He is given time to rest after he finished a big task. I think school is just challenging.
He may be getting and losing teeth as well so this may be part of the mix.
Luke will not take any subs for the thumb such as grabbers (i have plenty of them and offer them routinely) He thinks the yellow T-tube is a hammer.

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jtkkmom · Posted: January 10 2012, 11:52 AM Post subject:

My daughter used to do this often & still does it occasionally. With her it is a sensory issue. Doing lots of deep pressure & massage on her hands helps. We do it a few times a day, but for only a few minutes at a time.

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Amy · Posted: January 10 2012, 12:47 PM Post subject:

Kellsey Garcia does this. You can message Renee Garcia on facebook and she'll share what ll she has done for this. One thing she did was sew her pj top sleeves at the end of the arms. (so kells can't put her hands through the sleeves) She would find Kellsey in the morning with bloody hands where she chewed on them all night. Crying or Very sad

She tried some other things and I think Kells has about stopped that now. Anyway, give her a shout out and I'm sure she'll have some good pointers for you.

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TheBradyBunch · Posted: January 11 2012, 12:08 AM Post subject:

Noah does this constantly, I have it in his IEP to redirect him when he does this. I do it at home too, I know it does something for him, but it's not functional and it prevents him from learning something functional. Of course I can't stop him when I can't see it, but I redirect ALL of his stimmy behaviours. I realise he will still do it, but what he does in his time to wind down is his business (as long as it doesn't involve poop), but when I can see it, or others can, I expect them all to intervene. It seems to work, it is constant reminders because I'm sure he is driven to do it, as opposed to actively thinking about what he can do oh I know, I'll chew my thumb...but yeah, we are going to try the chewy tube and other things for when he is at home or the car, but not when he's at school. I tell them his "special" things are for home use. I'm just not comfortable with giving him something I would find humiliating, even though he may not know the difference right now, someday he will....

Ok I've turned this into my own rant...

Signing off lol

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