SPD Support Thread :) - Page 3

[kalynnsmom]

Do any of your kids do strange things when they walk? My 7 YO DD walks with her hands up to her chest, folded down, if that makes sense. We're not sure why she does that, not sure if it's sensory related, or what.

[InMediasRes]

I am having very little luck over in Gentle Discipline.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...3#post14661433

How much can you expect a 2.5yo sensory seeker to sit still and eat his dinner when he is already tired? Every couple of nights we get into this thing where he's hungry but can't sit down to eat, so I try to put away his dinner and he falls apart. I'm working on feeding him sooner, but I don't know if it's fair to expect him to sit at the table or to sort of "drive by" eat. DH (and apparently some people here) think I'm enabling him.

I just don't want to have any more tantrums than we have to all day.

[umami_mommy]

it's developmentally inappropriate to expect any 2.5 year old to sit for more than a few minutes. and anyways, why does it matter? there is plenty of time in the future for learning to sit, at 2.5 there are way more interesting things to do anyway.

find the things your child is good and and emphasize those. don't waste your time trying to make your kids do things that don't matter anyway. sitting down to dinner is a skill a toddler doesn't need.

[InMediasRes]

That's what I keep trying to say - that I don't care if he sits to eat or not, what I wanted help with was the tantrums. I made a mistake even mentioning the dinner issue because that's what everyone chose to pick on.

[umami_mommy]

tantrums are pretty common even with 2.5 year olds who aren't sensory. learning your child's triggers and trying to prevent them is the best course of action. it doesn't always work with sensory kids though. my DS had tremendous hour long tantrums. we learned to prevent a lot of them, but not all of them.

dinner time is a terrible time for us. always was. we don't do much after 5 PM. we just expect DS to be kinda whacky. the time change always makes it worse too.

i learned to make dinner much earlier in the day so we could just warm it up. (or used the slow cooker)

also, sensory activities much earlier in the day work to make evening much calmer around here.

HTH, i have to run.

[meg-momto2]

Sactomommy- i don't really care what DS is doing as long as he's eating. i am often tell DH we need pick our battles. DS was a snacker for years. a few bites here and few more there. can you leave out his food for a while and he can come by and eat when he's ready? i wouldn't expect my 2yo DD to sit still either. if she's gets up i leave the food out. she usually comes back to it after a few minutes.

[ernalala]

Getting sick: oh yes, ds is acting pretty 'normal' before coming up with a cold or other acute illness. The hyper is usually gone for 1-2 days and you wonder what you've been thinking that he's always so active and a hands full etc., and then on day 3: fever! All right now I get it :-).
It's happened several times like this, I even had other people who saw my son in (for us 'low') action on such days, that my 'ds1 seemed to be much more hyperactive/busy than my ds2' (and usually it's the other way around, or at least equally wild) and I remember me replying: well, actually, no he ISN'T AT ALL but now you mention it, today indeed he's much less energetic, I wonder how come.

Dinner time/food: Our PREFERENCE as a family is to sit down together for mealtimes, because it is cosy and family connection time, a break for all etc. But it is not a RULE. Tbh, with ds2 I am already happy if he ate some decent foods during the day. He's also a snacker, from early age on very independent on food choice by himself out of the cupboards/fridge, he chooses his own foods, acc. to his liking only etc., I'm fine with that, even if I wasn't completely (he was always into things lol and at 2 that can be pretty messy or even dangerous) I had to BE fine with it because it's just him. MAKING him do things is asking for hell, lol. I can STRONGLY SUGGEST but if he has other plans, that's that and we are or try to be fine with that.
Need to check out your thread. Sorry you didn't find much support, but I sure know what you mean so you got mine!

[InMediasRes]

Resurrecting here.... How is everyone?

We had a breakthrough with the raging tantrums about a week ago. I decided to try just sitting calmly near him, deflecting the aggression if it happened, and reminding him ONCE that if he needed me to hold him to just ask. He calmed down so much quicker when I was not talking at all. Makes sense that he would only want to be listening to himself and running around in circles. I don't know why I didn't think of it before.

We have had some real anxiety going out in public the last few times we tried. At the zoo, we only made it to the primate house and missed over 3/4 of the other exhibits because a giant statue of an elephant really freaked him out. At a favorite museum, there were too many kids when we went and he high tailed it out of there. I don't know what we're going to do when we have to go to school.

The snow is being very kind to us though. He is so calm after a 30 min "run" through the snow. Dragging his heavy boots through a foot of snow really gets the energy out. He's also been better at telling us that he has "energies" and that he needs to run. He really seems to be recognizing his own needs more.

Anywho, what is everyone else up to?

[umami_mommy]

trying to find our groove after 2 weeks of H1N1.

[meg-momto2]

DS was a nightmare post flu. you'll get back your groove, i promise.

i'm wondering if either you or your child's other parent has SPD or signs of SPD. DS is my mini me even down to his hyper sensitives. my parents always thought i was just really, really shy and overly sensitive. my brother had a lot of special needs so his issues always had priority over me.

[dewlady]

Anyone still here? I would love to join. I would LOVE to chat with other mamas of SID kids. My DD is 10 now and I have no doubt that this is what is going on with her, I just had her really young and had no idea that she had "special needs" after reading about SID I just exhale and realize it wasn't all just my fault or, like someone else said, that I "just need to make her put her clothes on..." she does really well now, we have a clothing grove...I make all her skirts and they are the same as they have been since she was 5. before that some dresses were ok, but not now. I guess we have a rhythm now and i pick my battles. I used to battle about underwear...now i just figure that if I'm the only one that knows she's not wearing any and her skirts are ankle length, than who cares... She wears sweaters but no jacket (as always). I sometimes wonder if it would have been easier if i had known to get her therapy, but she is really ok now. the tantrums about leaving the door/getting dressed are few and far between now. (she did freak out yesterday because it was crazy hair day at school and she wanted her hair a certain way but then couldn't tolerate it and felt miserable)
Anyways, no specific issues are up for us right now, just wanting to see if anyone was still following this thread or if there is a new active one.

[ernalala]

Yes. I'm still in. However, lately it's been going so well with my ds2 (it feels like a breeze in comparison with the past 2 years) that I need to vent or look for solutions much less.
The time will come, probably when he'll start pre-school in the (near) future where new issues may come up, fingers crossed. He's just very happy at home with me now and I enjoy the new, more positive, joyful groove so much too.
The clothing issues has been resolved for most part, also by being very flexible as a parent about it. I think because we leave him a lot of choice and independency as he always seems to need, and he also learned better to trust in our ability to choose right for him, in our judgement, and he's aware of the possibility of picking something else to wear.
Hmmm. Lately he's removing belts from his trousers which results in his pants gliding down (the reason for the belts lol!), and he's with his hands in his pants VERY often, yet another issue :-) (Luckily mostly at home, lol). And at least he got the habit of pulling his pants up regularly, or even holding them while running around for them to prevent to fall of :-))). And he doesn't take them of completely anymore when going to the loo. Phew.
I also suspect a cutting in milk intake has something to do with 'better groove: less stools,better stools, less discomfort, less irritability/day, less tiring/frustrating (for mom)...

But I truly believe in a parent being responsive to an spd's child's different needs. My focus on things is just different, definitely also level of importance.

He is also very impatient and so the best way is to respond to him asap.