Does your child chew on their clothes?

[circa1978]

Or am I raising a goat? For the past two or three weeks, Henry has been chewing the heck out of his shirts. He'll go a few days between, but then he's back to it.

The internet tells me this is could mean everything from a totally normal child, to a stressed child, to a bored child, to a hungry child to a child with sensory processing issues. My actual initial thought was maybe an ear infection. Any experience?

[Jermys]

Freddie does it sometimes. Edith never did. I think it's because kids are weird.

[luckyval]

Yes, he sucks on the collar of his shirts and coats, though not as often as he used to.

No clue what he gets out of it.

[sewf]

My DS does, but usually when he is teething. I'm not sure how old you child is.

[circa1978]

He'll be three in less than 2 weeks. Sigh. We just convinced him not to pick his nose. It's hard to make them civilized.

[Mrs. ChanandlerBong]

My son did that between 3 and 4.5. It took us a while to figure out it was an anxiety behavior. We didn't realize how much preschool was affecting him ( we didn't realize how much they pushed the kids until we talked to parents at other preschools that only did play based things. His preschool was doing early kindergarten stuff). He was one of the youngest and wasn't catching on to stuff as fast as other kids.

Once school was out last spring, the chewing stopped. He also had a habit of spinning everywhere, too. Both of those stopped and only show up when he is worried about things now.

[onomatopoeia]

Mar 9, 2014 17:16:00 GMT -5 circa1978 said:

Or am I raising a goat? For the past two or three weeks, Henry has been chewing the heck out of his shirts. He'll go a few days between, but then he's back to it.

The internet tells me this is could mean everything from a totally normal child, to a stressed child, to a bored child, to a hungry child to a child with sensory processing issues. My actual initial thought was maybe an ear infection. Any experience?

DS started doing this (chewing on his shirt), and it was due to a double ear infection.  No symptoms other than a runny nose...the doctor caught it at his 5 year physical.  After it was treated the shirt chewing stopped!

[jaycee]

My 3 year old does not chew his clothes.

When I was 6ish, however, I did chew on the sleeves of my shirts. I also sucked on chunks of my hair.     It was not a sign of a processing disorder, anxiety, hunger, etc.  I was just being a brat.

[karmasabiotch]

Yes. He doesn't really realizes he does it. I redirect and not make an issue out of it. That seems to be working.

[lolanjoe]

DH is 33 and he still occasionally will put the collar of a t-shirt in his mouth if he's concentrating on something really hard. Nip it in the bud!

[muffin0]

DD does this at school with her blanket at rest time. She does have anxiety issues so that makes sense to me.

[whitemerlot]

My 4 year old chews the necks of his shirts sometimes. He is an anxious kid, but I don't see a pattern with thus and his anxiety. He does a lot of fidgeting and picking in general. So do I. Apple, tree I guess.

[circa1978]

Hmm. Henry is has shown no anxiety to date but that is certainly possible. Nervous disorders are my family's most dominant trait. Seconded by brattiness, so...

[shell24]

My DD1 did for awhile. She had an oral fixation. She grew out of it but damn did it irritate me. She ruined countless tops! Not sure how old your child is but my DD was 4 and into 5 a bit.