Stress Balls

One of my children is a skin picker. This child has been a skin picker their entire life. They pick at their skin when they get bored, or just to keep their hands busy, until it bleeds. And then they pick at it again. And again. I am often getting asked for band-aids. One of the worst episodes took an entire month before it finally healed completely.

I have racked my brain for ways to get my child to stop the habit. I feel that it is a self-soothing technique and don't want to trade one bad habit for another. I don't want to take away any comfort my kiddo might get from it as well. Then I realized they need something to keep their hands busy. When I suggested making stress balls they were all for it. Hoping that it will help.

To make the stress balls we used:
balloons
cornstarch
funnel