Why does my 5 year old son constantly lick things?

[ratherconcerned13]

My 5 yr old son has started licking things. He licks my sleeves, his clothes, walls, doors, converyor belts in supermarkets, the ground outside, just about anything and everything. He's also never grown out of the putting things in his mouth phase. He's very bright, doing very well at school but at home is extremely demanding, rarely sleeps, on the go constantly, angry, has an obsession with me stroking him if he bangs himself (he does this purposefully many many times a day) and I have to stroke him better in the right direction until he feels better. He also has to have his clothes put on and removed in a certain order, and only ever by me.....he sometimes has a stammer too. Oh and he has this absolute hatred of anyone touching his hair and I have to stroke it back into place. He also asks questions constantly and I have to answer him over and over until he's satisfied I've answered him in the right way.My main worry though atm is the constant licking of things.Any ideas what is going on with him? I'm certain that something is not right with him.

[Question_Everything1111]

Most likely lack of nutrition.  Beef is very powerful at giving nutrition to cells very efficiently.  Try increasing  beef dramatically.  Don't listen to the veggie propaganda.

[Sandman2]

      Since this post was from 6 years ago, I doubt that you will get any feedback from the original poster.  Why don't you start a new post letting us know what your daughter is doing?  "Almost all of these same traits" is not real helpful.
     I will say that the son does display a lot of symptoms of Sensory Processing Disorder.  It was not very well know about back then.  You can find out more about it here - http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/

[1roromama]

Hi.  I just found your post and wondering if you ever had any answers to these behaviors with your son?  My daughter is 5 right now but displays almost all of these same traits.  Any help or advice would be great! Thanks

[ratherconcerned13]

Thanks for your reply. I took him to the doctor and he has now referred him to a paediatrician. I took a long list of all the "odd" behaviours he dispalys, which including throat clearing, tapping, needing very little sleep, aswell as the licking and other things I put in my OP. The doctor seemed mostly concerned about the licking though, and said he felt that was somehow different to the other things he has going on. I'm now pretty confused about it all, and have been googling his symptoms. This always seems to lead me back to OCD and Tourettes, which all sounds pretty scary. Anyone got any idea if it could be something less serious?

[Natta1980]

Sounds like OCD traits/anxiety which often stem from sensory issues (processing information from outside world). He clearly craves sensory input (stroking, licking, etc.).....Does he do it at school? My son has a thing where all of his buttons have to be "buttoned up" and sometimes he even attempts to button up my buttons. His "obsessions" are a lot worse at school.

Key is not to make a big deal out of it, but make sure that he understands that having my buttons a certain way is my choice.

[ratherconcerned13]

I forgot to mention that he dispalys very controlling behaviour at times too. He refused ever to say please and thankyou, always telling me he would say it when he started school. Likewise he refused to poo on either a potty or the toilet and also told me he would do this when he started school. The very morning of his first ever day of school he said to me, "Can I have a drink please?" And then thankyou", and that same day he went to the toilet for a poo.