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Biting arms

ParentingAutism

My daughter has recently started biting her arms over the past few weeks. She has many bruises on her arms which some are swollen. They range from big to small little ones and look very painful. She had to be held because of this yesterday in school. They explained that she was biting with extreme force so they held her to stop her. She's never done this before and I'm lost on what to do. Like, how do I prevent the worst injuries as much as I can without touching her because that makes it worse? 

  • in reply to NAS72765

    We know what causes the biting and have tried distraction and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. She usually bites in a meltdown which can be really bad, especially in school, so usually they hold her while it happens. We use other techniques because it's not so bad. 

    I'm sorry to hear about your son. It is hard. We just scrapped homework altogether at the end but sometimes she would do it willingly or in school. 

  • in reply to NAS72765

    Hi, It’s must be hard seeing your child bite themselves over the worry of home work. I have been there with my son. 

    My son who’s 11 does no homework at home at all. Homework causes my Child so much anxiety and stress which then makes me stressed. Just after my son was diagnosed nearly 5 years ago myself and the school made a joint decision that my child no longer was required to do any school work or school projects at home. School work ends when the school day finishes. 

  • Hi there, I’m quite new to all of this. My son (10) has recently been diagnosed with autism and ADHD and I am doing an online course to try and understand the condition better.

    My son also bites himself, and others, and it can be very distressing for a parent to witness.  I find that if I can start to talk to him about his favourite subject (gaming) then it can be enough to distract him.  I suppose the trick is, as others have mentioned, to try and find out what is causing the behaviour in the first place - my son often does it when we try to do homework, which he obviously finds stressful and frustrating.  Unfortunately doing school work and homework are part of life, it would be interesting to hear if anyone who has autism can provide some advice on how to make this easier.

    Another final thing, which you have probably already done, try and speak to your daughter to find out what is bothering her when she does it.

    I hope you manage to get the issues resolved.

  • Hello, 

    My son (now 20 and 'high functioning') started biting his arms as a teen. He was unhappy in school, very frustrated and it was almost like a form of self harm. He needed a release from what was going on in his body. He quickly moved setting and the biting stopped straight away.

    Hope you manage to find the root of the problem x

  • in reply to YarN

    We haven't seen the doctor because we aren't a big fan of them with her. She does have anxiety but we know when she's anxious because she will go quiet, look paler and with play with her fingers. 

    She will bite her arms and hurt herself during a meltdown or when she is overloaded by something. She uses stress toys when she's anxious if she has them otherwise if she's trying to bite herself she's not in the frame of mind to even think about anything. 

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