I seriously don't know what to do with this kid any more. Since around last January (2007), Jack has constantly chewed on his hand. It is *always* in his mouth and I mean as far as he can push it with the palm up to the roof of his mouth. He's had it infected before and it's always wet. Nothing stops him. We have to put his arm in a splint so he can't bend it to get to his mouth. May seem cruel, but it's ridiculous and like I said we have to deal with infection if we just let him do it. So, when you splint him, he resorts to grinding his teeth.It is driving me mad, it sounds so awful! He has all of his teeth except the two either side of his front middle bottom ones so it isn't a teething issue, more of a sensory thing, but it is driving me up the wall now. He doesn't "chew" as such so even if we give him something to put in his mouth to occupy him, he just chucks it and the hand goes in. If he's had his splint on for an hour, I guarantee that literally 2 seconds after I take it off, there his hand goes. Argh!
2 comments:
i have no idea how to help you.
the slightest problem with my (perfectly healthy) kids has me tearing my hair out.
motherofshrek.blogspot.com
has an autistic child and has had to become an expert in that field due to a lack of expert help.
The best I can think of is a glove that tastes horrible. Or a glove with a toy sewn on so that the whole thing's too big to get in.
Both sound pretty lame to me.
That sounds frustrating to deal with, especially since it causes him to get an infection. ugh
The splint is better than him getting the infection.
What's the longest amount of time you've left the splint on Jack ?
If he wears the splint for days or weeks, I wonder if that would help break the habit of him putting his hand in his mouth ?
Might be a useless idea, but I"ll still post it.
When my skids would bite each other alot, their ped doc told us to put hot sauce in their mouth to teach them to associate biting, with something tasting unpleasant. I couldn't bear to use hot sauce, so he then suggested lemon juice. And it worked like a charm, and it noticeably helped to curb them from biting each other's faces, arms, legs, backs, etc...
I wonder if you put some lemon juice on his hand, and he tasted the bitter taste, if that would deter him from doing it so much.
Hang in there,
Lisa
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