United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I know this was "normal" after our daughter surgry, when she was still getting the feeling back in her hand and arm. Angelina quit after 3 monthes of it, that was over 2 years ago now she is 4yrs old complaining of her arm hurts
and bugs in it it (yuky)so she went back to biting chunks of her finger and thumb off! We let it go for about a month trying to get her to quite & still she is doing it.
Our reg. family doc.(our family doc. knows nothing on bp) had her do and x-ray and now has her set up to do an MRI.(we just have to find on to put her to sleep the frist one didn't work from all her crying.
What's wrong with her?? any ideas?? or are we on the right track??

Are the xray and MRI for the finger biting? Or the arm pain?

As for the "bugs" in the arm, that is a classic neurologic pain symptom. Unfortunately, many kids go thru stages of finger biting and chewing. The healing curve on bpi, especially after surgery, is quite a bit longer than we can anticipate. Some kids will have arm pain and weird sensations when going thru a growth spurt. Juliana went thru a banging phase with her arm--she would bang it on the wall or the edge of her toddler bed. I found that "deep" (that is: as deep as I could do, I am no massage therapist!) massage helped a lot. I would put cream on her arm and massage for a long time. She will still ask me to do that when her arm is bothering her.

If her function hasn't changed and she has such a negative reaction to the tests, perhaps you can wait. Have you called a bpi specialist? The surgeon you used? Four years old is a lot of growing and there could be some new nerve growth as well.

People have tried bitter apple and clove oil to make the fingers less "tasty".

I think a call to the specialist is in order.

good luck,
claudia

try putting Clove oil on the tips of her fingers. It's nasty tasting and it helps heal the fingers. My son was really bad about bitting his fingers for a while and someone on here years ago suggested the clove oil and it worked. I'd put it on in the morning, and then at night. You can usually find it at specialty food stores.

Good Luck!

Laura

Thanks for the info, I 'll call doc. Park's office and see what they think. The making the fingers less tastey,...lol...Angel will just go wash her hands, so already know that doesn't work I just hate to put her under for an MRI without knowing for sure that it's not just a "growth spurt".

totally not nice but nail polish remover. You cant just wash that taste off. Its Nasty! I paint my toe nails from time to time and absolutey hate taking the old polish off because I have my hands up by my mouth a lot and no matter how many times I wash my hands, I cant get the nail polish remover taste off my hands. It has to wear off over the day

Just a thought,
Good Luck!
Amy 19 years old ROBPI from MN

Massaging her arm AND hand is soooo sooothing in more ways than 1 especially when Mom does it. That weird sensation is all parrt ot the healing.
Carolyn J
Adult LOBPI

My daughter is 6 years old and had her last surgery when she was 2.5. She still bites on her fingers and hand.

Tina,
Every person has his/her own inner "timeclock" for the healing. FYI, I, having had no BPI related surgery, damaged nerves on my LOBPI side grew weird and at 68 I still have neurological pains, varied places and at unexpected times, especially when stressed or over-tired.
Carolyn J
Adult LOBPI


Message was edited by: Carolyn J

Tina,
Brandon is 8 last surgery at 14 months and he stills bites on that hand.....drives me crazy.....try pickling alum....it is bitter and in the spice aisle. Put it on her fingers and she won't bite anymore. GAYLE

All the ideas are great Thanks so much, so basicly there is nothing wrong with her she is still healing as she grows still not sure about the pain in her arm it comes and goes, will try messageing it. Sometimes she fakes it hurting..like when she has to pick up her toys or do something she says in a sing song voice "my arm hurts I can't"...lol....but I can tell the diffence in wine-crying