Grandparents Raising Children Support Group
This community is dedicated to grandparents who are the primary caregivers of their grandchildren. In cases where the parents are not willing or able to provide adequate care for their children, grandparents may take on the role of primary caregivers. Join the support group to find support, share your experience, and get advice from other members.
My oldest grandson[Jose]was playing with some rocks this evening and dropped one on his finger,so we made the 2nd trip to the ER in a month[1st time was for bump on his head about 2 weeks ago].He broke the tip off his 3rd finger bone and had to have glue and stiri strips.He did amazingly well for the dr for a child with SENSORY INTEGRATION.Him being given LORATAB 5 ELIXOR helped I would say.Now he has to wear a splint on his finger for about 6 weeks and keep it clean and dry.There lies the problem:he wants to put it in his mouth and pull the strings out of the gauze[he has always wanted to pull strings out of towels and wash cloths and until now I saw no harm in letting him since it seamed to calm him].I have changed the gauze 5 times since 8:00 pm.How do I keep him from doing this?He doesn't understand when I fuss at him for doing it and he gets really upset.He has also bit his finger a couple of time and started it bleeding again.
Repetitious behavior which is done subconsciously for self-soothing is a sign of OCD usually brought on during stressful situations.
You might try to redirect the behavior to a more socially acceptable such as a stuff animal or blanket to touch or stroke.
Just a thought from an OCD sufferer. There are many other manifestation of OCD which young children exhibit including hair biting, pulling, or twirling, fingernail biting, scab picking, etc.