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Is he supposed to have a water bottle at school? I don't know if this would work for him, but for our extremely sensory dd, sucking on a straw satisfied the same type of sensory urge that caused her to chew. We also got the OT end-of-pencil chewie things that look like erasers when she was your ds' age. She ultimately grew out of her need to chew, and I will never know *exactly* why it happened, but I think that it was due to addressing her sensory needs in larger ways (she went through sensory OT, listening therapy and we did a lot of brushing/joint compressions) combined with identifying and reducing the things in her environment that ramped up her sensory needs (in her case, vision challenges and anxiety-producing situations).

Best wishes,

polarbear

PB
School encourages them to have water bottles. So we send him with one, good to hydrate and all that. He chews straws too. But he doesn't chew anything else not fingers, clothes. He picks pencil erasers apart but doesn't chew them. I don't really want to give him something specific to chew that's for chewing, seems like it would encourage it. Gum bothers me less. If he doesn't have the water bottle in his mouth he isn't chewing and its not like he is sitting there chewing - but once it goes in to drink, he chews.I actually found on amazon a kids water bottle set with a screw cap, I asked him about it and he said he was willing to try it, although at first got snarky and said he would just chew the cap and so I totally yelled at him about choking hazards!!! But I think it's worth a try, he can drink out of bottles without spilling so its more about putting the cap back on and not losing it!

Thanks!

DeHe

DS7 reduced the cuffs of his school sweaters to rags last year and has spent the summer mutilating his t-shirts - cuffs and necks. He tells me his teeth sometimes bother him and that it helps him concentrate in school (I suspect the latter might just be him telling me what he thinks I want to hear!). I've been debating the pencil chewies and necklaces - which he actually says he'd wear and use - against waiting it out. It's probably a cheaper option than repeat visits to the uniform shop! He's used a screw cap water bottle for years without spills or lost caps (or chewing it!), so I'd highly recommend that option. Now I'm going to google chewie bling...