Friday, April 18, 2008

Eureka!

I attended a Biting Workshop at Health Department last night, and it was beyond fabulous!!!!!!

In a nutshell, what they've found is that kids who bite are having trouble with sensory integration.

To help with that, they have discovered that if they pass out toothbrushes and have the children brush their teeth after breakfast, snacks, and lunch, they can reduce the biting by 85%!!!!! And for the children who are in that other 15%, if they are encouraged to brush every hour, they have a 98% success rate!!!!!

I talked to The Wild Child's teacher after my seminar (she was on her way into the provider version of the class) and this is definitely something we can try in her classroom. From what I understand, WC is not the only biter in the room.

Other suggestions from the seminar are to discontinue spill-proof cups and give more crunchy food to encourage the use of the back teeth. Basically, children who bite will benefit further development of their oral skills.

I am sure I said some of this wrong, cause I'm just an accountant, you know, and not a child development professional.

But I am so excited to have something to try and also to have confirmation that it's nothing that we've done (or haven't done) that is causing WC to have this behavior. Yay for me being a good mom after all!!!!!


6 comments:

Kate said...

I never doubted you were a good mom!! I'll cross some more fingers that this works!

Stephanie said...

Great! It seems like you got some answers! I would have never thought of brushing teeth to reduce biting!! By 85%! That's crazy! Good Luck!

Kate said...

Wow! This is really interesting! Finn's biting has calmed down a lot but I will definitely file this tip away for future use.

Rachael said...

wow...who'd have thought?

good for you for finding the right resource and fingers crossed for you that it works!

Multislacking Mama said...

Sash, that is awesome! It totally makes sense to me. Bring on the cheetos and the toothbrush!

Let us know how it goes!
Holly

Beach Bum said...

We ALL knew you were an AWESOME mom! Thanks for sharing your great info!