My 7 year old won't stop chewing on things!

[AerisandAlex]

I think I'm about the snap, this has been going on with her since she was little and I've never been able to break her habit and I don't know what to do anymore.

She did have a pacifier when she was younger, but I took it away when she was 2 months old because I was afraid of this very thing happening and it ended up happening anyway!

It started with blankets, I didn't know what to do when she started putting them in her mouth, she'd do it when she was sleeping at night and I'd go and check on her and pull it out, but an hour later it'd be back in her mouth and I'd be pulling it out again... and it's not like I could take the blankets away, it was winter and she'd of froze as an infant And even when it finally turned summer and I put most of the blankets away, she'd chew on her sheets or her PJs and I'd have to do the same thing, pull it out of her mouth at night...

She'd do this for years and now she's 7 and still doing all of it! But she's chewing on other things now, toys, her hair, clothes, and of course the blankets among other things! I take the items away every time I catch her with them in her mouth (aside from the hair obviously, I just pull it out of her mouth) and either I throw the item in the laundry if it's clothes or blankets or I throw the toy away to show her what happens when she's chewing on an item no matter what it is.

She's not actually consuming the items, so it's not pica, it's just an oral fixation she has. I'm worried and so is the dentist, that it's going to really ruin her bite and cause her to need braces, retainer and an expander, and one worse I'm worried about is a surgery that I myself need to correct my own bite. I never chewed on anything or had a pacifier but my mouth was formed oddly to where braces, expanders and retainers just don't cut it for me, I actually need to have my upper and lower jaw broken and a metal plate put in... it scares me to think that she might need the same surgery, but since she's chewing on things it's going to just make the whole situation 10x worse.


Half of me wishes she had a fixation with just one thing, like being a thumb sucker, I know what to do to help fix that as I watched as my parents put the nice pepper spice on my sister's thumb when she wouldn't stop... but this is everything.


If I take one thing away, she'll put something else in her mouth... like if I take the blankets, she chew on her clothes, if I put clothes on her that just won't stretch to go into her mouth, she'll chew on her hair and I don't want to resort to chopping her hair off, I'd have to give her a boy cut to make it so she can't reach it into her mouth and that's just terrible to me.

I just don't know what to do anymore, does anyone have any advice? I apologize for the long explanation.

 

[MoldyVoldy]

Is it possible that she has ADHD? Or maybe anxiety? I'd have her evaluated by a professional just to make sure. (There's nothing wrong with this!). Better that you know, so that you can get her the help she may need (or even just the help she may need to stop this habit).

Good luck

 

[messica]

She's self soothing. It's normal behavior and following her around taking everything out of her mouth is just enforcing her compulsion to do it more.

It's not going to affect her bite any more than the food she eats everyday does, and if she needs braces someday this won't be the cause. Genetics may be though as you said it's an issue for you.

In short, you really need to back off and leave her alone about it. She'll stop when she's ready and able. She's obviously in desperate need of an outlet and when you interfere it undoubtedly drives her anxiety higher. If she were my child, and she seemed rather fanatic about it, I'd gently ask her if she was ok. If anything was bothering her. If she needed a hug, or just to talk.

With time I would hope that instead of internalizing to the point of compulsory chewing that she'd eventually start to come to me for comfort instead.

 

[AerisandAlex]

Is it possible that she has ADHD? Or maybe anxiety? I'd have her evaluated by a professional just to make sure. (There's nothing wrong with this!). Better that you know, so that you can get her the help she may need (or even just the help she may need to stop this habit).

Good luck

She does have ADHD and is on a small medication for it... I didn't want to put her on anything, I thought maybe there could be something done to control it, but unfortunately nothing really worked and the teachers were going to remove her from the classroom because she was not only disrupting her own educational process, but others in the classroom as well

I just spoke with a speech therapist I had for my son and she mentioned that the ADHD was probably the main factor for the chewing and she might need, what she called, an OTT therapist, someone to help her with her oral fixation... but she doesn't really have any anxiety... she is a leader and is very social with everyone at school including teachers and is very intelligent and she knows it. The only issue she has is that chewing aside from the ADHD...

 

[Dragonfly]

Sensory processing disorder (oral). Its the one thing my two do and they do not have anxiety, adhd etc its an oral part of SPD. Both my boys have chewie gems they chew on. Look up the chewiegem page on facebook thats how I found out I just thought it was teething or sore teeth with mine for a long time. But I also did this right up to my teens too. And I do not have autism or adhd.

https://www.facebook.com/chewigem?fref=ts

 

[the why bird]

I was going to suggest a chewy necklace too. You can also get pencil toppers which are safe to chew on. I would speak to the teacher and explain that this isn't something she is doing to be naughty, since surely putting her out of class will stress her more.

I can understand why you don't want her chewing on clothes and toys, and I'd be a bit concerned about her swallowing a bunch of hair, but maybe rather than taking away her comfort altogether you can work with her to get into the habit of using things made specifically to be chewed on.

 

[Loui1001]

I would request a referral to OT for sure, it'd be really helpful