Texture Issues/Eating Inappropriate Things?

[sammyloo]

I am curious if anyone has a preschooler obsessed with texture or eating things like carpet or velcro or non-food items? Over the past year, my son (age 4) has become obsessed with texture and rubbing different carpets - from the rain mats at grocery stores to velcro on shoes - he will give himself abrasions on his face and arms from rubbing too hard. He is getting better about using his feet instead of arms and hands to rub floors, but he cannot stop eating it. I am tempted to treat it like a discipline issue or do a sticker chart or something but I don't want to set him up to fail and I just don't think he can do it yet. Why does he eat carpet and strings and threads and velcro? Why can't he stop? Today he came home from school and said "Mommy, I am so proud I didn't eat carpet today. But I did a lot of sparkles." He was never really into putting toys into his mouth as a baby - he was a very intense nurser who didn't eat/drink/bottle/sippie/whatever until almost 18 months. We found out recently he has celiac disease but I am not sure that plays a role in this issue. Any thoughts?

[LynnS6]

My first thought is one of two things:

Sensory Processing Disorder  Here's a checklist: http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-processing-disorder-checklist.html. For kids who've had medical issues early in life, SPD is pretty common. (It's also more common in gifted kids, children with ADHD and children with autism.)

or

Pica due to some sort of nutritional deficiency. If he's got celiac's disease, his gut may still be having trouble.

Obviously, the treatment is going to be different depending on the cause (and it could be something else). I would NOT treat this as behavioral as it's clear he's really having a hard time controlling it.

I'd start with trying to redirect it. You can get "chewelry" for him to chew on as a replacement. Some examples:

Chewelry Circles/Hearts

A whole range -- from chewable necklaces/bracelets to pendants