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Expert Q&A

	By Kate Cohen-Posey Therapist

My 3-year-old chews on his shirt. What can I do?

Repetitious habits that start before the age of 4 are often out-grown. There is absolutely no point in asking him why he does it because he does not know. Some people tend to bite their nails and others don't. Usually there is some neurological basis for it.

You can tell him that you know his mouth likes to chew and some mouths are just like that but that he needs to learn to be the boss of his mouth. There are basically two approaches: (1) Set up a reward system for every 10 minutes he can watch TV with out chewing and gradually increase the length of time. The more he is able to ignore his urge, the less often they are likely to come. (2) Use distractions or substitute more acceptable behaviors. You might give him a cup of ice chips to crunch, carrots to chew or a rubber toy. At the same time you can still reward him for even using acceptable chewing objects less often. Stop watches are a lot of fun. You can time the minutes he spends chewing (acceptable objects) during a show and reward him each time he spends fewer minutes/seconds chewing.

Don't make a big deal out of it but give subtle suggestions that in two days, two weeks, two months or two years he won't even feel like chewing.

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