Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi again. I was here a few months ago, I intended to stay and get to know everyone better but life took over as it usually does.
I need some help and guidance with my daughter. She has a diagnosis of autism and originally was obsessed with nibbling everything, her toys, me though never her dad and her clothes. But this has got worse in the last month. She's gone from gently nibbling to actually biting very hard, so hard that she has made my hands bleed and hurts her teeth. I did want to take her to the gp but they won't see her, only doing phone calls here still but the gp was so unhelpful said that she'll probably grow out of it. Well that's not good enough, she's hurting herself and hurting me. I'm worried she'll chip a tooth in the end as she literally bites everything. Please help us with this.
I went through this when I was about 4 years old. I would bite other children. Unfortunately with no understanding of autism in the 70’s, my mother thought the cure was to bite me every time I did this, thoroughly don’t recommend this. There was a post a few days ago on chewelry it might be worth searching it.
It is a sensory need that she needs to fulfil. Taking it out on you is her frustration, to me it was a stim as well. I went on to chewing paper, chewelry wouldn’t have been available then so I suppose that I used the paper as a replacement. Sorry that I can’t help more. She will hopefully grow out of it or move on to a different way of expressing herself, which I know isn’t much help at the moment. I do get the,”she will grow out of it” for every issue, people think they are being helpful, we know differently.
Hi Roy thank you for replying. Aw I'm sorry your mum did that to you. That must have been awful for you! I'm sorry. We don't bite Laura back you'll be glad to know. I don't approve of that and would never do anything like that to her.
I'm glad that you found something else to chew in the end instead of your classmates. Laura hasn't bitten any other boys and girls yet but she did bite the teacher, very awkward. A kind member suggested googling chewable things online which my husband did and we're going to get some for Laura so we can give her them when she needs them :)