Aspies For Freedom

I do that and I still do. And I have never experienced any of the problems that you have described.

Sorry I am of little help but I can't remember why I stopped chewing some things I used to chew (e.g. clothes)

Don't tell him to bite his lip. I have cut my hair recently (I used to chew it) and I have transferred the chewing to my lip, and I have scratched it alot. It is a nice cherry colour now but it is quite sore.

Just to say my oral stims seemed to peak in severity around age 14. After that some just seemed to naturally stop.

Depending on how much he cares about popularity, you could tell him that his peers wouldn't find him doing it 'cool'.

One oral thing my mum managed to deter me from for a number of years was hair eating, but that was because she told me that if I carried on doing it I could die and then she showed me a newspaper article proving it. Maybe if you supplied proof to your claims, it may help.

Hmm.. does he bite on the objects or suck on them? Try replacing the objects he bites/sucks on with candy. Tell him that if he wanted to bite/suck on something, he should bite/suck on some candy you provide him instead.

It is a very old article from about 6 years ago, I don't know whether I would be able to find it. I will have a look later though.

I used to suck the mud from stones when I was very little. I had to have my stomach pumped and alot of injections. It was good in a way because I am now immune to alot of the germs I could pick up.
I was never allowed gum as a kid, since I would always take it out of my mouth and play with it. It usually ended up stuck in my hair.

I chew on toothpicks now quite a lot.

What's "high waters"?

I'm not sure what exactly to do about the thumb sucking and stuff but I do know the more that people want him to stop, the more he will do it. Makes things hard.

Aha, I see.

Hmm. There is a kind of chewy/solid rubbery plastic that they make dolls from. See if you can get your mitts on that kind of plastic for him to chew on.

lol!

Why not? It's a stim. It should be comforting.

I know a friend of mine still sucks her thumb.

I still bite my fingernails. The only thing that helps me stop is apply nail polish.

Yeah, twokids, don't worry; it's perfectly safe. Chances are, it helps him cope with his environment, to think better, or to calm down. Many NT kids like to chew on things or suck their thumbs; it's just more common with Spectrum kids.

I saw it in another thread, but I just can't find it.

There's a dental appliance (like a plate) that's supposed to help discourage thumb sucking. I've seen it and it's like a 'wire' that runs around the back of the teeth with a little 'roller' on it.

As I understand the idea is the child can 'play' with the little roller with their tongue.

I think the "not having fun" conclusion came about because this thread focuses on his problems, and doesn't focus on the rest of his life--which probably does include fun. Let's not make assumptions here.

Anyway, if it weren't fo the stigma of thumb-sucking, I would say, hey, it doesn't matter if he does it. That stigma itself is a good reason to encourage him to give it up; but eliminating oral stims altogether is a pretty bad idea. Replacement is generally the best option when a stim is socially unacceptable, hurts the child, or annoys people around... Ex. my tapping my fingers on a desk, which disturbed other students in school, was replaced with tapping them against my palm.

Me too. I don't bother trying to stop because that will mean I will have to start using a nail clipper. I hate, HATE long nails.