My 5 year old is constantly chewing on things - her hair, the ribbon on her dress, random things. It is really driving us crazy. She did chew on her nails for a long time but we used Marvala nail polish and she stopped right away. Now this behaviour has started. I don't know if I should put Marvala on the tip of her hair, I don't want to have to cut it short. I know it is a nervous habit, I mess with my nails when I'm nervous. Does anyone have any ideas of how to break this habit? Asking and telling her to stop makes no difference, she is back at it as soon as I turn around.
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Maybe it's a nervous habit?
This might not be helpful but when I was in middle school I use to chew/bite on my hair. It started randomly, I was just waiting for PE to start and was kind of bored and decided to chew on my hair and I really like the sensation of it, like the hair moving around while I chewed it. I never bit any of my hair off. I did this for probably a few weeks. What got me to stop was one of my friends saw me do it and she said stop that! She said her cousin use to do that and there is a a bunch of junk, dirty things and bugs in your hair that you don't know about and doesn't wash out easily. Her cousin accidentally ate a tape worm from chewing her hair and had to be cut open to get it out. Well that scared me to death and I never chewed my hair again.
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My DS is 5.5 and he went thru a phase of putting his hands in his mouth - grossed me out! The more I asked him to remove them the more he kept them in! Drove me bonkers!!
Anyway - in time it eventually stopped - it was several months though!
Also like PP mentioned peer pressure may get her to stop - if her friends point it out and say "oh that's gross" she may stop that way!
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My niece went through a chewing of the hair phase. My SIL just ended up having to cut it and making sure that my niece knew why. She eventually got over it and grew her hair out.
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could you feed the sensory need/habit in another way?
gum, chew beads, a fidget of some sort? Some of the chew bead necklaces are cute and I have used them with clients.
I realize that doesn't stop the chewing, but those would be more appropriate outlets
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Thanks for replying. I hope she grows out of it, but it has been going on for a while. Peer pressure will probably work when she gets into school this fall. The gum and chew bead necklaces are a great idea, I'll look into that. I hope I don't have to cut her hair!!
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