Looking for any advice or similar experiences for my almost 3yo DD. When she was about 18 months she started "bouncing"/rubbing on her cuddly toys - to begin with we thought she was copying the Highway Rat on his horse (ha!) but then we realised it may be more than that. I did some reading and have tried to be very sensitive/careful to not demonise it etc. At her young age it was hard to have the conversation of private/public, so we just removed all cuddly toys and cushions from downstairs and if we saw her doing it on the monitor during nap time/bed time, we left her be. But it could go on for the majority of her supposed nap time, which wasn't ideal!
Now she is almost 3, we are trying to have the conversation about public/private and telling her that she can do that in her room but it's not appropriate downstairs, but she still doesn't really understand - she just laughs when we tell her no, but if we take the object away, she has a massive tantrum. We still have no cushions/soft toys downstairs, but she will take the sofa cushions off the sofa, use the dog bed or the arm of the chair... even our legs if she's sat on our laps. Nursery haven't mentioned it, so that's something. I suspect it's when she's a little bit bored.
There have been occasions where she has asked to go to her room, but the only problem is she would stay up there for ages given the chance. She has previously gotten sore in the nappy area from it, and also given herself friction burns on the top of her feet where she sits in the w position.
I'm at a loss of what to do for the best... she is being referred to the paediatrician for a potential diagnosis (her limited social interaction/lack of reciprocal conversation/limited attention span are the red flags) but this isn't to me a stimming behaviour or anything like that, as it isn't occuring when I would expect stimming to occur. She does have tendencies for repetitive behaviour (echolalia/scripting) and it feels more like that to me, it's almost obsessive.
Any ideas/suggestions or is this one for the paed when we finally see them... I suspect that won't be until next year though. I want to leave her be, but when she's hurting herself I feel like I have to step in! How can I get the balance right without giving her a complex for the future?!