Four year old's oral fixation?

[paranoidprego]

My dd is 4 1/2 yo. Her newest thing (my annoyance) is chewing on her hair. Sometimes she will bite on her dress hem. It seems like she is bored and it has now become a habit. I don't know if i should ignore, distract, stop her when i catch her, or is there like a necklace she could wear that she could just gnaw on? I don't want to encourage it, though. she is a very healthy, happy child - i don't think she is stressed out.
Any ideas?

[wookie]

You may get more useful advice but I mostly ignore it or bring his attention to it. Mostly I know my son doesn't realise he's doing it and stops when asked. It's an unconscious thing while watching TV etc. for my son.

[broodymama]

My DD1 will be 4 next month and does the same thing. Chews on her arm (to the point of breaking the skin!), her clothes, blankets, toys, stuffies, you name it. After she chewed the silicone cover off the Wii remote a couple weeks ago I went looking for something that she could chew on. I got her a Chewelry necklace and she really likes her "chewy necklace". For the first day or so whenever she would start chewing on something else I would just ask her where her necklace was, and she would chew on that instead. As long as she remembers to put it on (and DD2 doesn't steal it) then that's the only thing she chews on.

This is the company that makes them: http://www.chewelry.ca/ though I got ours from a US vendor.

[coleslaw]

Her adult teeth could be coming in. I know my dd used to be like that at that age. My ds who will be 4 next month is complaining that his teeth hurt already.

[earthmama369]

I did that all through my childhood -- I had sensory processing disorder. Nowadays there are chewy tubes and neat "chew" jewelry that can give kids that extra sensory stimulation without ruining their hair or clothes. Whether or not she has sensory issues, it sounds like she'd probably enjoy something like that. My youngest has SPD just like his mama, and he carries his chewy tube just about everywhere. It's dishwasher-safe, BPA-free, phlatate- and lead-free, and pretty much indestructible. I love it.

[One_Girl]

My dd is seven and just now stopping the oral stage, I was 8 when I stopped the same thing. When she was five she went through a few months of putting her hair in her mouth so I started putting her hair up every morning as part of our morning routine. Once she had had her hair up for about a month I could leave it down and she wouldn't chew on it anymore. For the shirt thing I reminded her to keep her shirt nice if I saw her starting to chew on it. A few months ago she swallowed a small round toy and I had to spend a lot of time on the phone with a nurse to figure out if I needed to take her in to the ER right away. Luckily you only have to go in if the object they swallow has a point or is a large object (I think bigger than 1/2 an inch or so). She has not put anything other than paper in her mouth since then. I am happy to see the end of this stage finally. It is very frustrating and embarassing to have the tall kid putting something in her mouth in the middle of the basketball game.