Can I get her to stop chewing her fingers?

[kinkyfuckery]

DD1 (ASD/ADHD) is constantly chewing on her fingers/nails. I mean constantly. I can tell her not to, then less than 5 seconds later they are in her gob again. Her nails and fingers are a mess, all red and sore and it's only a matter of time before she gets an infection.
She won't let me put the bad tasting stuff on her nails, so that doesn't seem to be an option.

I'm feeling guilty about stopping it as it's clearly her 'thing' just now, but bloody hell, it's gonna end in tears, isn't it?

Any advice or tried and tested solutions?

She's 8, nearly 9.

No advice, but I sympathize. DS, 6 in Feb, is doing the same thing. For a couple months it was his shirts, toys, everything. Now he's just doing fingers. I think it's stress related - he's got speech and has dyspraxia which makes handwriting a challenge at school.

He has chew tubes (he had chew bling - necklace chew jewelry but promptly lost it at school) which he will use occasionally but the hands/fingers are constant. I've talked to him about it but it doesn't have an effect.

The only times he stops is when he's really "into" doing something - playing a game, Lego, etc.

I've warned him about the nasty tasting stuff but I'm afraid he'll revert back to his clothes again.

I'll be watching this thread.

It's difficult. DD2 sucks her hand. It's subconscious. I'm hoping the OT will have some ideas because it gets sore, especially in the winter.

We rewarded DS (ASC) for not doing it. Really constantly praising him whenever he wasn't doing it. And giving him something else to do with his hands which was incompatible with sucking his thumb like lego. We had ABA 1:1 support though so we all were able to work on it all day. If we saw him going to do it we would just gently direct his hands back down and distract him. If he was doing it we said what we wanted him to do instead 'still hands DS' etc. If he wasn't doing it then lots of praise and tokens / rewards. You can even start with chocolate or something much more motivating so when doesn't do it 'well done your hands are nice and dry / still etc have some chocolate'. Then obviously try and space out the rewards (maybe give tokens and prize at end) and fade them asap. We had to work on it over several weeks and then it stopped (and something else will have popped right up in its place!) I have seen children (and adults) with bandaged hands so its one of the stims I would work on as it can get out of control. Before ABA got involved I could honestly see DS with no skin left. He fairly quickly got to the point where he could stop himself - I would see his thumb go towards his mouth and then he would stop himself and put it back down. Obviously easier to work on at times when you can give lots of attention and try and get school etc to follow up in the day (not easy if you don't have 1:1).

With his NT brother I told him if he managed to grow his nails for a month I would buy him a DS game - he stopped straight away!

Thanks.

1:1 time with her would be great, but being a single parent to two kids, it's pretty thin on the ground

I will have a think about a reward scheme that may interest her, but none have worked in the past. I also keep meaning to get her a chew necklace/keyring/something, any recommendations?

We are awaiting a referral to OT, as directed in the ASD report. I'll maybe chase that up and see when we are likely to see someone.