Son Sucks Shirts

It could be an iron deficiency, A disease known as PICA is caused by lack of iron , where people eat ineidble items.
My son sucked his shirt, but also chewed on leggos, beads, money, anything he can fit in his mouth. I recently started supplementing him.
He no longer chews his clothes.

Look for any of these signs of zinc deficiency :

white marks across fingernails
can't concentrate/ADD
may have apathy, depression
headaches or dizzy
more infections than average
skitsophrenia
boils
slow healing or growth
cracks begind ears
hair loss
restless leg syndrome

Vitamin c increases absorption.

Any of these can cause iron deficiency:
parasites
antacids
being vegan
being a child
being elderly
pregnant
rapid growth
caffeine/coffee/tea
asprin
antibiotics
coumadin (blood thinner)
and calcium may decrease iron

Hi Judy,

My daughter who is now 10 just stop chewing on her clothes. It used to drive me crazy and would cause arguments because she was ruining her clothes. I found that if I just left her alone and told her that she was ruining her clothes and that I was not going to purchase new ones to replace them, she stopped. It relieved my stress and stopped the fussing.

I fully understand this habit is gross, but fussing about it really did not help either.

I hope this helps,

N. PH

My Ds did this last spring and summer (just after my father -unexpectedly- passed away.) He sucked (and chewed)and it was gross(and costly as I had to throw away many shirts.) But it was his way to handle the stress of a very hard time-we all have our "things" we do to handle stress- biting nails, twirling hair, tapping legs, lattes...

We talked ALOT with him about how it is not the behavior we want to see - and gently reminded him not to and offered other things(pencil toppers, squeezy balls to hold, gum) Nothing helped! Then one day he just stopped doing it! Phew!! What a glorious day that was.

I have no idea what to do. MY 9 year old son is doing the same thing. Interesting that he's not the only one. I would say just wear short sleeves but then mine goes for the neck line. yes this is annoying and I would think uncomfortable for them to be in once it's all wet. Merry Christmas

Judy My sons do it too. What I did was told him stop he did it again and I just left him with the same shirt on

Hi Judy,

How long has be been doing this? Did it start during a particularly difficult time in his life? My grandson did this for a while and we realized, after the fact, that he was responding to some stressors. No amount of nagging would stop it and, yeah, it was gross. He just stopped when things calmed down for him. L.

Like many of the other posts, we had the same situation. My older stepson started sucking and chewing on his sleeves and neckline due to stress. We share 50/50 custody with his mom but she is constantly fighting it and during a particularly rough time, his chewing flared up really bad. We spoke to his therapist about it and she said not to call attention to it. She said he would stop eventually and not to make him feel bad about it. I agree with many others though, that it is disgusting, expensive, and hard to ignore. But you just have to wait it out and try to find other outlets for him.

Hey Judy -

My son did the same thing for awhile...it's apparently a mild anxiety deal. What I recommend is to find something that allows him to calm himself without grossing out the general public. What worked with my son was either double-strong lemonade or Warheads -- the sour gave him the sensory input, and the oral calmed him down.

Definitely don't call attention to it in a negative way, but it's okay to tell him that you notice he's doing it. Go ahead and remind him each time he's doing it -- in a flat, unemotional tone. This will help him know when he's doing it. Then, offer a substitution to call himself.

Good luck -- this too, shall pass!

J.

It could be a zinc deficiency. Use google.com and search on: chewing zinc deficiency for more information.

Let him do it and try to ignore it.

My nephew has a mild case of CP and was sucking on his shirt to deal with anxiety. My SIL did not make in issue of it and bought him a necklace with a bead on it. He uses that to suck when he needs to. He is nine now and rarely sucks/bites on it. Good luck.

Hi Judy.

First of all, Merry Christmas! My son did this too. I think most boys do this as I've heard from so many moms they deal with it. I gave him the reasons not to do it (germs, ruining clothes, etc) and then casually kept on him about "get your shirt out of your mouth." Mine also bit small holes in his shirts. He's now 11 and rarely ever has it in his mouth anymore. I think they grow out of it. I know we should ignore it, but when I reminded him he stopped and became aware of what he was doing and eventually stopped, so don't feel bad if you can't ignore it. Just try to make it sound like no big deal and remind him to stop.

Judy,
It must be something that boys do at that age. Ours did it too. We just kept on him to stop,and eventually he did. I think it took about two weeks. I also found it really gross, and had no idea why he was doing it.
W.