What do you like to chew on?

A lot of Fragile X (and autistic) kids like to have something to chew on or mouth.  It's calming, helps satisfy their oral sensory needs, and in our case, if the boys have a chewy keeping their mouths busy, they're less likely to bite each other or anyone else.  They stay calm .. other kids stay pleasantly unbitten ... it's win-win!

Of course it all started like most babies begin their first chewing obsession - with pacifiers in the hospital.  We moved on quickly to the store-bought variety.  AJ especially loved his pacies until fairly recently.

Of course both boys are more than willing to knash their teeth on a sippy cup or bottle top, until the rubber falls apart.  If anybody needs to know where to get replacement rubber inserts for the Nuby sippys, just email me, I've got a great source.

Now, AJ luckily likes the more traditional chewies - the rubber ones you can get a lot of places (our favorite is the Autism Shop) that come in a variety of colors, shapes, and textures.  AJ especially likes the bumpy ones.  He gnaws on them until they start coming apart and I have to throw them out.  But he will substitute with just about any random rubbery or plastic thing.

Mouthing a bottle of bubbles

They also really like chewerly.

Zack, on the other hand, has a little different palate.  He likes to chew and mouth anything metal.  As in spoons, measuring cups, keys, key rings, zippers, snaps, seat belts, ..... I could go on and on.  Anything with a little bit of metal on it goes straight into his mouth.  Any tiny, little bit of metal.

Sunglasses have a little metal, in the screws, I guess

These didn't last long, once he came to realize there is no metal on them

The only rubber/plastic I've ever seen Zack get really involved with is his butterfly chewy.

Discovery Toys doesn't make that butterfly chewy anymore, and I'm pretty sure I have scrounged up all the butterfly chewies that exist in the continential U.S., and we've managed, one by one, to lose every single one.  So he's had to find other things to mouth.

Zack was into this rubber chewy for awhile, only because it had a metal clip on the end of it.

Yes, we've been through quite the variety of chewy things since the boys were born.  Some chewy things are more appropriate than others.  But anything that keeps them from licking the shopping carts at Target is good with me.