Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi Everyone,
So I am here looking for some advice, as we are beginning the process of going down the route of a diagnosis for our son. At the moment we have sent a referral to a paediatrician, but we are waiting to hear if they will accept our sons case and investigate or not.
I am wanting to ask about sensory seeking behaviours, particularly orally and whether these are just normal 2 year old behaviours, or if they are something more.
So our son mouths EVERYTHING, he excessively dribbles and is constantly chewing on things. He chews wooden toys to the point where he gnaws away at the wood they're made from, scratches the paint off them, he licks everything and he also bites us gently. It doesn't seem like this is to hurt us, it's more like he does it when he gets too excited. When I say he excessively dribbles, I mean it's to the point where he has to wear a bib ALL of the time, he gets through 3/4 bibs a day and the bibs soak through onto his outfits and we have to change him. I mean through jumpers, t-shirts and right down to his vests. He drools a lot and he doesn't seem to have any awareness of himself doing this.
More recently, he has started licking the TV when bright colours come up. He licks specific points on the TV, like where the bright colour is. And he also looks right into lights and licks them as well. He is constantly putting his face into our christmas tree and licking the individual lights on there too. If his baby sister is playing with a toy which lights up, he'll lick that. It's like he licks colours and that's his way of processing them. Is this an actual thing? Is this something which is a common behaviour in toddlers, or is this something else?
Any advice would be great!
Thanks!
Hi, my son is 7 he already has a diagnosis but even from an early age he put things in his mouth. He will put anything in his mouth he recently has been wanting to chew on coat hangers as you can imagine this frightened the living day lights out of me just in case he fell. I’ve brought him a toy called a chew buddie. These are amazing. They have different textures on them they can also hang around the neck and they can keep chewing them all day. You can pick them up from amazon for around £6 my son loves his and it goes everywhere with him, I’ve just ordered more just in case we loose one. There are amazing websites where you can get them to just type in sensory chew toys or something like that
Hi Nas64861,
We are currently going through a diagnosis with our 3 year old and he is a sensory seeker. He has alot of repetitive behaviours that include running in circles, jumping up and down for hours, banging his head on things and checking EVERYTHING with his tongue.
He has a number of "that's not my..." books which he has always licked rather than feel, he licks the flashing bits on toys and chews almost everything. He also bites and pinches when excited (which we've struggled with as we can't tell him off for being happy and gentle hands/mouths is not something he can get a grasp of). We've found getting him some toys for younger children has helped, particularly the Lamaze toys!
Hi NAS64861,
You may like to have a look at the following link for more information on behaviour and strategies - the page on pica in particular may be helpful as this includes mouthing non-food items:
Behaviour: http://www.autism.org.uk/living-with-autism/understanding-behaviour.asp
Pica: https://www.autism.org.uk/about/behaviour/challenging-behaviour/pica.aspx
You may also want to contact the Autism Helpline who can provide information and advice on behaviour and strategies. You can call them on 0808 800 4104 (Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm, Friday 9am to 3pm). Please note that the Helpline is experiencing a high volume of calls and it may take a couple of attempts before you get through to speak to an adviser.
I hope this is helpful!Dani Mod