Help! DC has nibbled bed

[LittleCrow]

DC nibbles things when bored, concentrating or just generally taking in surroundings.

This week I'd noticed DC lean over the side of the bed whilst DH read stories at bedtime.

I've had a look tonight and the side of the BUSUNGE Ikea bed has bite marks all along it. You can see the wood underneath the coating that's been chewed through. It's a PVC type material, is there anything that can be used to cover it?

I have no idea what can be used to cover it but I used to do this as a kid and had completely forgotten about it until your post!!

One of my brothers did things like this. I remember him eating the buttons off the tv remote. Dick!

No idea re covering the bed either I'm afraid

I did this too - had wood chip wallpaper and picked all the chips out and nibbles them!!

@lurchermummy & @wibblewobbleball out of interest, what age did you stop?

For anyone who may ever experience this in future (although quite niche) and looks for a solution, I took a trip to B&Q and found some white PVC tape, kind of like duct tape but a bit thinner and smoother. I managed to smooth down the bite marks as much as possible and tape over it, it's still a bit bumpy but you can't see the holes thankfully.

Hopefully it won't get chewed again but I have a whole roll in case.

Awww, sounds like your munchkin is quite sensory seeking! Maybe something they can safely chew on at bedtime would be a good distraction?

Until now I had forgotten that DS2 did this. He stopped about age 4. You can get toys to chew - chewbuddies are one.

This has just reminded me that I used to nibble the bedposts of my old bed as a child too. We are collectively very bizarre

Oh God, me too! Had completely forgotten about sinking my teeth into the wooden frame of my bunk bed when I was small! There was a hard coating and if I pressed gently with my teeth there was a sensation of soft crunchiness. It was so satisfying. And chewing the satin edges of my blankets was very pleasant too!

@PestoPasghetti Yes, they've had some tools to divert the chewing for a while now, it became a real issue with DC biting lots of things. We also had a cabinet which was victim to the chewing at one point. The aids have not been needed at bedtime before because DC hasn't had much of an issue at bedtime really. I can always introduce those at bedtime but I'm a bit wary of making it a 'thing' and causing the bedtime biting to get worse. I think at the moment DC has a lot on their mind, so much piled on for the end of the school year, birthday parties and end of activity events, etc. We've not had any bedtime sensory seeking tonight so I'm hoping (perhaps stupidly) that it might settle down on its own.

If all else fails, I'll be eyeing up a new bed. As someone who chewed pens until a few years back and picked my wood chip wallpaper for fun as a child, it's all too tempting and becomes a real habit.

I must admit, apart from knowing it's a sensory thing with DC, we haven't explored more about it (because at 5 years old, school haven't said much about any other issues so far) so the extent of me understanding it further is probably a bit limited and me hoping that DC will grow out of it.

This reminds me, I have a nephew and DB got a brand new 150k car with a padded white leather dashboard. My nephew sunk his teeth into to and bit the dashboard. When asked why he did it he said I just wanted to see what it tasted like. The rest of the family found this hilarious!

Oh goodness! No chewed car parts here (yet at least). I've heard the line about wanting to know what things taste like too. Apparently paper all tastes different...