Please help with Yucky Habit!!

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I don't want to embarrass my son, 4.5... but he spits and takes his saliva and rubs it all over his face and hair. I have no idea why he does this, though I keep asking him and he doesn't answer. It seems to be around the time that he's hungry or when he has a cold. I've told him not to...I've tried to ignore it...I've told him about germs... I even got mad and said that it was disgusting but then felt soo horrible because I don't want him to think that I think HE"S disgusting, you know? Why would he be doing this? He doesn't like to be messy, sticky...so it just doesn't seem to fit his sensory profile.... what can I do so that he doesn't feel bad, but understands this isn't appropriate. Thanks for any/all ideas or thoughts!
Katherine

Do you own cats? Because this is how cats clean themselves... not really sure why he'd do it, but it's a thought.

yeah maybe if you have cats. XD
when i was little i used to "groom" my cats by licking them. XD

It does seem a wee bit odd of him to do. Though if you do have a cat it may be that he observed the behaviour and decided to mimic it.

Though, it could be to reflect internal distaste of being hungry or having a cold. I mean when someone's hungry there are no visual signs.

Do you make him wash his face with soap?

I know that I absolutely hate to wash my face with soap. It just dries out the skin and makes your face feel stiff and uncomfortable. I am fine with washing my face with just water and a cloth, but using soap isnt going to work. If your making him wash his face with soap, then he may get that uncomfortable dry skin feeling, which he is trying to fix.

That's my best guess at least.

My AS son's reaction: it cools you down.

True. Your son knows about evaporation cooling.

This is funny because this is a thing that mums (or moms) did at least in my generation. They would lick their thumb then wipe of anything on your face. It is part of the collection of things that mums and dads do embarrass their kids.

Hello,

I read your post and GASPED. My 5 year old did the same thing all summer and I thought it was the strangest thing. My son also hates being dirty/sticky, but he'd do this even if he'd just eaten something and spread it all over his face. Also like your child, he never answered when I asked why he did this. I never did figure out why, but I did eventually notice that he did it more when he was stressed or tired.

The behavior went away after a few months. Hopefully this will happen for your child too.

Best,
J

I guess we are more in the OCD generation now.

Still we wonder why there is a increase of allergies, yet at the same time stock up on sanitation products.

Yeah, I still do that

I think Strapples wrote a thread about something this like and that for him it's a sensory need. I don't have the time right now to look it up for you, but pretty sure Strapples was the author and it was in some sort of update thread...