2 year old chews on shirt- nothing else. need ideas

[Anonymous]

Hi!
I have a 2 year old. He has language delays and some possible indicators of ASD, but no formal diagnosis yet.
As the title suggests, he chews on shirt, mostly at daycare. We need some strategies for how to help him transition from this habit.
For some background information- he has strong language delays, both receptive and expressive. We also JUST gave up the binky. I am talking a few weeks ago. The other important thing is that when/if we take his shirt off he stops the chewing. He does not try to chew on other things, just the shirt.

Any ideas for how to address this issue would be much appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Are you working with an OT?

There are also lots of OT products like chewlry or other chewies:
http://shoponline.pfot.com/oralmotor.htm

[Anonymous]

a) can you get him the chewlry?

b) can you just not worry and he'll stop doing it at some point? Or worry about it when he's 3 yrs old if he hasn't stopped by then?

I say this as the director of a prorgram where we've had toddlers and 2s chew on their shirts - and other than making their shirt/chest wet and wrecking their shirts, it's not the end of the world at this age. I would say the other kids will remark on it more at 3 yrs old, but by then he may very well be done with it.

[Anonymous]

bite bands:
https://funandfunction.com/bite-bands.html

[Anonymous]

Hi. My son did this off and on for years. Maybe from age 2 to age 8?
There was really nothing that we could do as well as I can remember (he is a teen now) that helped in the short term. There are many pictures of his various habits that he used to have where you can trace the history of it. I guess he chewed his shirt so much sometimes it would wear off some of the skin on his face from the rubbing?
Anyway, it seemed to be something that came and went. He would do it for a while - a few months maybe? - and then he would stop. And then it would start again and I could not figure out a particular pattern.
I don't know what made him stop this exactly, but I do know that he had a LOT of 'habits' and they all slowly went away. No particular therapy, but what I would say is it was was that his brain was finally filled with more interesting things? That doesn't make much sense.... My son had a lot of language and speech delays and lots going in which he could not make sense of his world really. He was then exposed to many experiences and now has many things that interest him - endless sports, shopping, bike rides, playing with other children, games, on and on. I think that once those things started filling his brain, the 'habits' started melting away slowly.
He still has the speech and language problems (many learning disabilities), but we still got him involved in many activities and I think that helped. A lot.

We had a friend who was a school psychologist who was brought in to an IEP meeting because the teachers were freaked out that this kid was chewing on his shirt and what should we do? She said 'it's not interfering with his education, so we do nothing' and that was that. It can be yucky, but, well, oh well.

Don't stress too much about it. Make sure you enjoy your child.

[Anonymous]

OP here, so we did some investigation and realized that he did/does not chew on rash guards. I had suspected that he chewed mostly to create a pressure. Pulling on the shirt make it tighter.

So for now- we will dress him in Dri Fit clothes. It is a slim fir and heavier fabric. One mystery solved- for now!

[Anonymous]

Get him some teether instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:a) can you get him the chewlry?

b) can you just not worry and he'll stop doing it at some point? Or worry about it when he's 3 yrs old if he hasn't stopped by then?

I say this as the director of a prorgram where we've had toddlers and 2s chew on their shirts - and other than making their shirt/chest wet and wrecking their shirts, it's not the end of the world at this age. I would say the other kids will remark on it more at 3 yrs old, but by then he may very well be done with it.

+1

[Anonymous]

6.5 year old chewed on his shirt collar, sleeves and pencils. I bought his a chewigem skull necklace to chew on. It's a skull so he thinks it's cool. There a lot of products out there. I found this on Amazon. The necklace has saved his shirt collars from being destroyed. I'm wondering if he will grow out of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:6.5 year old chewed on his shirt collar, sleeves and pencils. I bought his a chewigem skull necklace to chew on. It's a skull so he thinks it's cool. There a lot of products out there. I found this on Amazon. The necklace has saved his shirt collars from being destroyed. I'm wondering if he will grow out of it.

Dad here. At that age I chewed shirt fronts, and then after graduating from that, I switched to pencils. I eventually grew out of it, never became a gum chewer or smoker, though I was an occasional nail-biter. I have to believe this is really common, no big deal, and just a matter of your child learning to channel this form of nervous sensory-seeking in a socially aware way. Doesn't really need to happen on any particular timetable. For what it's worth, I've had a great life and this never became an issue or got in the way. (Though in private moments, at home, the spouse has caught me nail-chewing or even grazing on arm hairs, I know, ewww. . . )

[Anonymous]

Without sounding ill-informed, I think this is "normal" behavior. My "normal" kid does this to all his shirts.

[Anonymous]

My dd does this still to clothes and coats, sweaters. She is 13

[Anonymous]

I helped my son when we dressed him in button downs rather than T-shirts. He didn't chew on the button down collar, only the T-shirt area right in front of his chin, for whatever reason. We also used Chewelry and that helped, but he would often take it off and lose it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Without sounding ill-informed, I think this is "normal" behavior. My "normal" kid does this to all his shirts.

Are kids are all normal too.

Chewing occasionally on a shirt isn't necessarily bad, but it's problematic if the shirt is soaking with saliva.

[Anonymous]

Op here.so- our new SLP (we finally started to supplement the smart start services) suggested that the chewing might be related to hypertonia. I feel like a fool for not seeing this. He has other low tone issues (sitting up at 13 months, wreak OT scores) ect. Basically his mouth, when at rest is open. So giving him something to chew on lets him close his mouth around things and rest his facial muscles.
Will also add that I'm also kicking myself because she was able to size this up in 1 hour- as where we have been in smart start for a year, and no one has even suggested this. Despite him having tested in the 'moderate risk' range for spina bifida while I was pregnant and having a sacral dimple far up his back.
I feel like we are finally on the right track- bit wondering what the hell we were doing this past year. Seems like so much wasted time.