@Tenacious I had a cat that used to chew. The vet called it "pica" which I'd read about in anthropology class years earlier regarding humans eating non-human type food, like clay. My Nikki used to chew plastic!!!

@Tenacious Teething? I had one that was terrible. I actually found teething cat toys. She preferred shoelaces.

@Tenacious Oh, wow. I know that must have been so tough. Hope this topic didn't cause any grief.

@Tenacious, Yeah, I was doing a home visit with an Autistic 3 year old, and while I was talking to his dad after our session, the kid wandered into the back and came out drinking a bottle of nail polish. Uggh.

@Tenacious, my cat Kindrie loved chewing on plastic shoes...

@Tenacious, I'm Autistic, so was my dad. I have an Autistic aunt, nephew, and most of my cousins' kids. And I work in Speech Therapy.

@TaraMarshall After 60 years I still cry at the memory of a little girl being wheeled through the children's ward for her umpteenth operation. She was screaming "I don't want any more operations". She never returned having died on the theatre table as they tried to save her from having drunk raw bleach left in a soft drink bottle in a cupboard by a caring protective adult!

@FrayedBear, how horrible.

@TaraMarshall PTSD unrecognised and untreated for 60 years.

@FrayedBear yeah, my PTSD was recognized when I was 28, now almost 44.

@TaraMarshall What started yours?

@FrayedBear, childhood abuse. My mother should never have had children, and I will never trust her to care for a child.

@TaraMarshall I have a friend whose mother had him put in a mental institution at the age of three because he wanted to learn to read.

@FrayedBear, my father taught me to read when I was 2, and I could spell out simple words before I could speak because of Apraxia.

@TaraMarshall Good on him.