shirt sucking

[mom to robbie]

my son loves to suck his shirts he keeps it in his mouth and sometimes falls asleep with it in his mouth. he was not a thumb sucker. is it maybe a comfort issue for him??he is 4 years old..

[Guest Stacie]

My son does this also, he is 9. I have always felt he was getting something from the dyes of the clothing...or possibly direct pressure on the roof of his mouth. Which, that is a way of helping him heal. My son does it less when we use cranial sacral techniques on him. We do use the roof of his mouth in some sessions.

 

I'm trying to remember why I did that... still do sometimes. I have aspergers and have many of the same stims and characters many autistics do... I do know that different dyes taste differently... that is about all I can remember.

[Guest ErikaH]

My son sucked on his shirt for a while. Then all of a sudden it stopped. He has TS though. I just thought it was another tic. Shortly afterwards he would stick his hand in his mouth. That stopped too. He is 4. He mostly sucked his shirt in the car. I don't think it's the dye. I just think it's something to do and tic related. ERIKA

[tarabeara]

My 3yo son does this. He has TS and AS. He will suck on his shirt, and then he'll want to take off his shirt, because it's wet and bothers him.

 

I remember sucking on my shirt as a child, too.

[JennyC]

My daughter has a tic disorder/ Tourettes and now is being looked at for autism. She sucks/chews on a lot of things including her hands and clothes. Ive found that giving her really crunchy snacks like carrots have helped, she seems to crave that sort of sensory thing for her mouth. You can also buy chew tubes which honestly look a little bit like a rubber dog toy which is why I havent bought one lol.

[_Jennifer_]

My 13 year old son started doing this around 3, around 6 he started chewing holes in his shirts after wearing them only once, so no hand downs for my younger son but he stopped this around 10, he has tourette syndrome and aspergers and pandas, at 10 he started spitting on the floor, he hated this so I told him to spit into his shirt, some days after school his shirt would have 5 inches down of wet spit at least he wasn't spitting on the floor anymore. He is now 13 and is spitting into his shirt much less. now my younger son has started biting holes in his shirt, but no other symptoms. Jennifer