Child Development Concerns

Back to:  Therapist Questions & Answers - Developmental Concerns

What is the most heavy duty chewy toy in your opinion? I have a 14 year old who will chew on and crack open pens, metal pull tabs and uses his front teeth to shred a yellow chewy tube.

The speech therapist's recommended always trying to guide chewy items to back teeth since there is more chewing input there than at the front of the mouth. The toughest thing that I've come across is the ARK Grabber XT. They make a regular grabber too, but the XT version is supposed to be extra tough material. I believe that they make the XT version now in different scents and textures too. I used to see a 6 yr. old years ago that destroyed all other chewies and her mom said that was the one thing that she was not able to chew apart. Of course, with anything, you want to watch for signs of wear and tear over time, soaps may sometimes be hard on chewies, I definitely wouldn't clean in a dishwasher or anything. Make sure to always wash by hand. I believe most sensory catalogues or other chewy sources sell them. The blue chewy tube has a bigger diameter and is even tougher than the red & yellow tubes. The knobby tube has some texture but is not quite as tough as the blue one.

Try the website www.superduperinc.com and look for "stretchy tubing" on their site, it seems to be more durable than the others. The only thing that comes to mind is a product on the Talktools.net website. It is similar to a bite/chewy tube but the q shape ones are very solid. Much more dense than the typical chewy (yellow) tube. The q shape tubes are purple and green in color. Hope that gives you some more recommendations to try. Keep in mind our therapists work with early childhood populations, so the children ages 8 and under do not have the same jaw/chew strength as a 14 year old would have. 

Back to:  Therapist Questions & Answers - Developmental Concerns