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Obsessive Biting

Mrs. Bojangles

Hi I have a 8 year old daughter who is diagnosed with ASD and her teacher told me she's started biting frequently throughout the day. I noticed she does it at home too, at tea she bites her knife and fork, she bites pencils and has started biting her skin. I don't think it's stress related and I don't think it's a reaction to anything as she seems to enjoy biting things. I bought my daughter a chewelry necklace so she can have it within easy reach all day but she's not using it but continues biting everything else within reach.

I don't know what to do about it. I've tried talking to her and encouraged her to use the chewelry necklace but she's not shown any interest in it and I worry she's going to damage her teeth the way she keeps on biting things.

  • Thank you lovelies. I’m so grateful for your help this afternoon. I have called the GP and they are going to schedule an appointment for her next week if they can, so if there are is a lack of vitamins going on hopefully it can be corrected before any bigger problems arise.

    I have taken to saying no lovely and removing what she’s biting from her when I see her chomping away on something inappropriate. She always looks sad but I remind her of her necklace to chew and then she will start chewing it and seems to more less forget what she was biting on before. I’m hoping by doing this I can create a routine where she immediately goes to her necklace when she wants to chew something, rather than her fork or her own skin.

    I know from my own experiences from biting things that in the long term it can be harmful. I now suffer from jaw pain and damaged teeth from years of biting when I was a child and teenager. I’m also Autistic, I’m sorry I didn’t remember to say in my OP.

  • My granddaughter Clare who is now 12 is a biter. She loves to chew everything and my daughter bought her a chewelry necklace but at first that didn’t work too well. She took Clare to the GP and they suggested trying a different chewelry item and a fidget toy, to distract from biting items and herself.

    This worked for my granddaughter and my Good Lady and I have different chewelry and fidget toys at our place now, for when she stays over.

    I would recommend talking to the GP about this as they will be the best ones to advise you on how to help your daughter and may be able to assist if she is lacking in a certain vitamin or the like.

    My best wishes to you.

  • I also have a daughter (age 7) with ASD and a chewing fascination. Chewelry necklaces have become a staple of her wardrobe since we got her diagnosis around age 4. Thankfully for us she chews on the necklace mostly, but every so often we catch her still chewing her pencils and such.

    She’s always struggled with it, but it was worse before the necklaces. She used to chew on her crib as a baby/toddler to a point we were afraid she was going to perforate her internal organs with wood chips. To solve that, we found a specialty long sleeve pajama shirt that covers her hands and soft railing guards to prevent her from accessing the wood. She eventually grew out of that specific chewing fascination.

    A couple things you can check out with your GP to see if these could be part of the problem:
    1. Your GP can check for iron levels. Low iron can cause people to want to chew more.
    2. If your GP has reason to believe that pica could be an underlying cause, you could get treatment for that specifically.