Re: Chewing on Thumbs

[Guest guest]

We have the problem not the solution.

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[Guest guest]

You know ,

That is half the reason Faith does it too, but the other

half is when she is really tired or upset about something. I have teasingly

joked about putting hot sauce on them to keep them out of her mouth.

But I would never do this to her. I really don't know what to do about it

but hope she will eventually outgrow it. There are bigger fish to fry as they

say.

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[Guest guest]

My son does it when he has sinus issues. That is how we know he has

something going on.

mary

>

>

>

> Hi, everyone! I was wondering if anyone else's child chews on his/her

> thumbs. Carson chews and chews (never sucks, just chews) on his thumbs

> and now they are calloused, always swollen, just awful. When he first

> started I thought it was teeth related, but he has all of his teeth now

> and he does it ALL THE TIME! When I am with him I pull the thumbs out,

> but there is a lot of time that he does it-in the car seat, in bed,

> when I can't be right next to him. Drives me kooky-and keeps him from

> using his hands because one of them is always in his mouth. Anyone

> have experience with this or better yet-anyone conquer this??

>

> Andi

> Mom to Carson, Mosaic DS and ASD, age 3 and Cameron, age 2

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Ditto

_____

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf

Of keith9164@...

Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 8:56 PM

To:

Subject: Re: Chewing on Thumbs

We have the problem not the solution.

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[Guest guest]

My son does this, too... When he was your son's age, it was a big

problem. He would chew to the point of having an open wound on his

thumb--and then keep chewing. We tried providing chewy tubes,

bandaging his thumb, anything to distract him from the behavior. I

can't say any one thing was a solution, but over time it has stopped

being such a problem.

He still likes to chew and I'm currently trying to figure out how to

get him to stop chewing on the cord to his headphones when he's

listening to music on the bus.

So, I don't have a solution either. Just wanted to let you know there

were other kids out there doing the same thing--and that, in our

case, the intensity faded with age.

Sharon

> Hi, everyone! I was wondering if anyone else's child chews on his/her

> thumbs. Carson chews and chews (never sucks, just chews) on his thumbs

> and now they are calloused, always swollen, just awful. When he first

> started I thought it was teeth related, but he has all of his teeth

> now

> and he does it ALL THE TIME! When I am with him I pull the thumbs out,

> but there is a lot of time that he does it-in the car seat, in bed,

> when I can't be right next to him. Drives me kooky-and keeps him from

> using his hands because one of them is always in his mouth. Anyone

> have experience with this or better yet-anyone conquer this??

>

> Andi

> Mom to Carson, Mosaic DS and ASD, age 3 and Cameron, age 2

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

My daughter has also done this since she was young and had the same

problem of chewing until she had sores. She is 12 now and it has stopped

quite a bit but she still does it especially when she is tired and trying

to go to sleep. Her poor thumbs are so calloused and look terrible but

we don't have the raw places anymore. We also have went to chewy tubes

which I think helped the most and also has decreased the teeth grinding

some. She still will chew on her sleeves in the winter. Another reason

to be glad to see spring come!!

Good luck! Wish I had more solutions.

Carla

> My son does this, too... When he was your son's age, it was a big

> problem. He would chew to the point of having an open wound on his

> thumb--and then keep chewing. We tried providing chewy tubes,

> bandaging his thumb, anything to distract him from the behavior. I

> can't say any one thing was a solution, but over time it has stopped

> being such a problem.

>

> He still likes to chew and I'm currently trying to figure out how to

> get him to stop chewing on the cord to his headphones when he's

> listening to music on the bus.

>

> So, I don't have a solution either. Just wanted to let you know there

> were other kids out there doing the same thing--and that, in our

> case, the intensity faded with age.

>

> Sharon

>

>

>

>

>> >

>

[Guest guest]

> >

> >> >

> >

[Guest guest]

My son did this too when he was younger. He got a horrible staph

infection under his nail which took a good month to clear up (age

8?). I don't think he chewed on them much after that. Now he picks

at his lips (age 14).

Lori Boldt

[Guest guest]

> >> >

> >> >> >

> >> >

[Guest guest]

Sounds just like Carson. And it is a really big " fish " for us

because it seems all he wants to do is chew on his thumbs-besides the

fact that he also has the open wounds and that his thumbs and three

times the size they should be, and oh, the germs I worry about!-but

since he is so fixated on having those thumbs in his mouth-he rarely

uses his hands for anything productive or for play.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Funny how many of our kiddos

it affects-but when I search for it on the internet, I only found one

good reference to chewing on thumbs specifically. It was a woman's

blog who happens to be the Mom of a little boy with DS and she was

discussing how she ran across one other little boy with DS that also

chewed his thumb-she mentioned that that she thought her little boy

was the only one that chewed his thumb, since she never heard/saw of

another one, until then. Since then only one other kiddo she knows

of chews his thumb-and he happens to have DS too. She said something

along the lines of " Seriously, is there a 'thumb chewing' gene

somewhere on that 21st chromosome that kicks in when there's three

copies of it? ... " I thought that was interesting.

Thanks again for the feedback. I think we may try this glove thing

that is supposed to stop kids from sucking their thumbs. I am

worried that he will just chew right through the material like he

does with his pillowcase and blanket. So we will just have to see

what it is made out of.

Thanks for this site-this is all very new to me and our family and it

is great to have somewhere to ask questions and get feedback. Andi

>

> > Hi, everyone! I was wondering if anyone else's child chews on

his/her

> > thumbs. Carson chews and chews (never sucks, just chews) on his

thumbs

> > and now they are calloused, always swollen, just awful. When he

first

> > started I thought it was teeth related, but he has all of his

teeth

> > now

> > and he does it ALL THE TIME! When I am with him I pull the thumbs

out,

> > but there is a lot of time that he does it-in the car seat, in

bed,

> > when I can't be right next to him. Drives me kooky-and keeps him

from

> > using his hands because one of them is always in his mouth. Anyone

> > have experience with this or better yet-anyone conquer this??

> >

> > Andi

> > Mom to Carson, Mosaic DS and ASD, age 3 and Cameron, age 2

> >

> >

> >

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

> >

> > > Hi, everyone! I was wondering if anyone else's child chews on

> his/her

> > > thumbs. Carson chews and chews (never sucks, just chews) on

his

> thumbs

> > > and now they are calloused, always swollen, just awful. When

he

> first

> > > started I thought it was teeth related, but he has all of his

> teeth

> > > now

> > > and he does it ALL THE TIME! When I am with him I pull the

thumbs

> out,

> > > but there is a lot of time that he does it-in the car seat, in

> bed,

> > > when I can't be right next to him. Drives me kooky-and keeps

him

> from

> > > using his hands because one of them is always in his mouth.

Anyone

> > > have experience with this or better yet-anyone conquer this??

> > >

> > > Andi

> > > Mom to Carson, Mosaic DS and ASD, age 3 and Cameron, age 2

> > >

> > >

> > >

> >

> >

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

nathan use to chew up his arms, and bite often and also grinds his teeth. We

did lots of oral sensory integration. LIke redirecting him to his chewy tube and

a vibrating teether and there were cold ones, and frozen ones and ones with

different textures. Us and school personal worked hard at this with nathan and

eventually he stopped. dont know if he out grew it or what, but at least with

him chewing on the tubes his arms healed up nicely. He just occaisonally grinds

whats left of his teeth anymore, and rarely will i see him chewing or biting his

arms or hands, he has to be pretty stressed or sick. I would ask your OT or ST

for help in this area. shawna

To: @...: andi.stone@...: Wed, 7 May 2008

21:41:27 +0000Subject: Chewing on Thumbs

Hi, everyone! I was wondering if anyone else's child chews on his/her thumbs.

Carson chews and chews (never sucks, just chews) on his thumbs and now they are

calloused, always swollen, just awful. When he first started I thought it was

teeth related, but he has all of his teeth now and he does it ALL THE TIME! When

I am with him I pull the thumbs out, but there is a lot of time that he does

it-in the car seat, in bed, when I can't be right next to him. Drives me

kooky-and keeps him from using his hands because one of them is always in his

mouth. Anyone have experience with this or better yet-anyone conquer this??

AndiMom to Carson, Mosaic DS and ASD, age 3 and Cameron, age 2

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_052008

[Guest guest]

I'm guessing that you probably don't want to know that , age 19,

does this. LOL! Fortunately it is only ehen falling ASLEEP.

kARYN

>

> Hi, everyone! I was wondering if anyone else's child chews on

his/her

> thumbs. Carson chews and chews (never sucks, just chews) on his

thumbs

> and now they are calloused, always swollen, just awful. When he

first

> started I thought it was teeth related, but he has all of his teeth

now

> and he does it ALL THE TIME! When I am with him I pull the thumbs

out,

> but there is a lot of time that he does it-in the car seat, in bed,

> when I can't be right next to him. Drives me kooky-and keeps him

from

> using his hands because one of them is always in his mouth. Anyone

> have experience with this or better yet-anyone conquer this??

>

> Andi

> Mom to Carson, Mosaic DS and ASD, age 3 and Cameron, age 2

>