Books and tissue paper, and toilet paper....oh my!

She likes to eat books....and toilet paper.....and tissue paper.....

She used to eat baby wipes when she was 2

There were so many signs that Juliana might be on the spectrum, but we didn't know anything about it and my husband was a difficult child when he was little so we all just assumed she took after him. And we all know what happens when we assume. Of course, it turns out, she is very much like her father, but that's a whole different blog. She is now six years old and she will do anything to make sure I don't catch her eating things she isn't supposed to eat. It's funny, because from ages 3-5 we thought she had quit, and her brothers both ate the edges of the books so we thought it was only them. Boy were we wrong! She was just hiding it. Last year she attending public school and the teacher told me that we needed to work on her "social/behavioral" issues. When I asked her what she meant, she told me that the other students had started making fun of her for some of her "issues". Only problem here....I was never notified that she had any "issues". So I sat down with the teacher to find out what was going on. Turns out she was pulling down her pants often in class, hiding under desks and tables, eating paper and tissue paper, and picking her nose and eating it. At least the picking the nose thing was fairly "normal" so I didn't pay any attention to that one. At first I thought it was just an at-school thing. She has high anxiety and is currently on medication for it. So I started keeping a closer eye on it at home. I didn't notice anything at first, but then I found a wadded up piece of toilet paper in her bed. When I asked her why it was in her bed she replied with a typical "I don't know". After that I didn't see anything for a while. Last spring for reasons to long to list right now, I pulled her from school and started homeschooling her. She seemed to do much better and I didn't see her chewing on anything. Then I found out it's because I still wasn't looking hard enough. Fast forward a few months. I do a TON of therapy at home with my children. Until last month my youngest was still in the First Steps program. This is an early intervention program in our state. Joshua received Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, and ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) Therapy in our home. I learned as much as I could from the therapists, books and of course the internet for the last three years. Using this knowledge I worked with my children whenever I had the time and patience to do it. My boys both chew inappropriate objects and I worked extra hard on this issue because both of them tended to chew on wood in the house. Yes, wood. That included, but was not limited to, our t.v. stand, trim, doors, our coffee table, the bed frames, puzzle pieces, stair banisters, chairs, the kitchen table.... the list goes on. I began to notice a decrease in my boys chewing once they both had a "chewy basket". This was a brilliant idea from our OT. We put a bunch of objects that we were ok with them chewing on such as chewy toys, old puzzle pieces that we didn't use anymore, wooden blocks, ect. Now that I wasn't having to focus so hard on the boys I started to notice little tell-tale signs that Juliana had not in fact quit chewing on inappropriate objects. I would find tons of unused toilet paper in the bathroom waste basket, books chewed up (which I had assumed was from the boys....here's that word "assume" again....) and sometimes when I would walk into a room she would purse her lips together and wouldn't talk or answer questions until she swallowed. I started keeping a closer eye on her and realized that she was ripping off a strip of toilet paper, eating pieces of it and throwing the rest in the waste basket when she was finished, she would sit in her room or on the couch and chew on our collection of board books, and sometimes if I wasn't in the room, she would eat her homework. You know that old excuse "the dog ate my homework"? In our case, it was Juliana. The photos from above were taken only a couple of weeks ago. I had to take all of the books away because she couldn't stop chewing on them. Some of them were so mangled I had to pry the pages open. The photos only show about half of the ones she ate. A side effect of me taking them all away is she is now eating other paper products even more to make up for it. We are looking into ways to help her. I have given her some chew toys, but it's not the same for her. It worked for my boys, but not her. Yes, I know, it might be something she is lacking in her diet. Good luck with that one buddy.... She is a VERY picky eater. Please don't ASSUME I am some sort of idiot that hasn't done my research, because I have been learning all about my children's special needs for the last three years. I am currently trying a few different things to help with the situation, but until I find something that works, I am keeping the books and toilet paper under high surveillance.