Jamie

Hi Guys!
My son is 4 and has had a habit of fixing his clothes over and over and now he has started licking and biting his fingers(compulsively?)for about 2 weeks. He is sensitive and a perfectionist. I first noticed the licking behavior at the library story time when he was doing a craft and felt rushed because the other kids got done so quickly. Now he does it almost constantly...even when watching tv. (He is sleeping on my lap right now and just did it without waking up.) I'm not sure what makes him do this and I'm hoping this is something he will grow out of. What I'm also worried about is germs, I don't want him to get sick and I don't want him to spread anything around. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Jamie

Jeanette

When my son was 4 he went through a major spitting stage. An occupational therapist suggested some mouth activities.....blowing bubbles, blowing on toy flutes or blowers (there are tons of them out there!!!!), chewing crunchy food like pretzels, chewing huge gumballs, drinking from straws, etc. We bought our son a toy flute that he played with for several hours....the spitting (all over everything,playing with his spit, letting drip down his chin) all stopped. A few months later he started it again and I got the flute back out...went away again and he has never done it again. I can't remember what the OT called this, but it had to do with sensory problems. She also suggested "The Out of Sync Child" and "The Out of Sync Child Plays".

Jeanette

On Nov 12, 2010, at 12:23 AM, "Jamie" <jamielsowers@...> wrote:

Hi Guys!
My son is 4 and has had a habit of fixing his clothes over and over and now he has started licking and biting his fingers(compulsively?)for about 2 weeks. He is sensitive and a perfectionist. I first noticed the licking behavior at the library story time when he was doing a craft and felt rushed because the other kids got done so quickly. Now he does it almost constantly...even when watching tv. (He is sleeping on my lap right now and just did it without waking up.) I'm not sure what makes him do this and I'm hoping this is something he will grow out of. What I'm also worried about is germs, I don't want him to get sick and I don't want him to spread anything around. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Jamie







[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

naturalmommyx3

>>>My son is 4 and has had a habit of fixing his clothes over and over and now he has started licking and biting his fingers(compulsively?)for about 2 weeks.<<<
I wish I could help here but rather wanted to say I am interested in seeing more responses to this because as a child I also began licking my hands and eventually got down to only licking my fingers (when I got older), just to make it more discreet. I still have the problem and I am 30! It did stop for a period of time, then came back. I have no recollection of what was going on in my life at the time to examine why it may have stopped:( I am not certain why but its just this feeling like I can't handle the way my hands feel (irked) sometimes and licking makes it feel better or more under control. I also had issues with wearing socks and jeans because I couldn't handle the way they felt. I grew out of that for the most part but jeans still bug me a little or on certain occasions. My mom used to keep a bottle of lotion around for me and that used to 'irk' me as well but eventually I found that this served as a good replacement sometimes, maybe give it a try until its resolved so germs are not an issue.
Anyway hope to hear more on this topic.
Christina

Ann

I don't know if this is strictly an oral issue or something else, but in my daycare (per the instructions of a speech therapist) I used the candy Sour Spray like you find at the check out at stores like Target or Walmart. I'd give him 2 sprays in the mouth of the sour spray and he was far less oral (mouthing things) for a couple of hours. THe speech therapist said that it would stimulate his mouth so he would not feel the need to but things in his mouth. Eventually he grew out of mouthing things. Since then I have used this on other children who had oral tendencies and it has worked on every child I used it on. It is spray candy, so if you use this technique on a child, you may want to brush his teeth a little more often than you would ordinarily.

Ann

--- In [email protected], "Jamie" <jamielsowers@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Guys!
> My son is 4 and has had a habit of fixing his clothes over and over and now he has started licking and biting his fingers(compulsively?)for about 2 weeks. He is sensitive and a perfectionist. I first noticed the licking behavior at the library story time when he was doing a craft and felt rushed because the other kids got done so quickly. Now he does it almost constantly...even when watching tv. (He is sleeping on my lap right now and just did it without waking up.) I'm not sure what makes him do this and I'm hoping this is something he will grow out of. What I'm also worried about is germs, I don't want him to get sick and I don't want him to spread anything around. Any suggestions?
> Thanks,
> Jamie
>