At what age did you notice SPD/SID?

[hdirks]

My daughter is 14 months old and I have been trying to figure out why she does the things she does. While she does have other issues such as global delays, profound deafness, eye abnormalities, etc. it doesn't explain the other things. Please tell me if I am wrong or of this sound like things of SPD. Or is she still too young to notice this?

Things that make me think she might have SPD:

-CONSTANTLY licking things. I have to pull her off the floor at least 3-4 times an HOUR because she will get down on her belly and lick the carpet back and forth or the hardwood floor or the vents in the floor.

-ALWAYS trying to eat things she shoudln't. She will chew on the trim in the doorway, she has chewed multiple wholes in my couch, and it goes on and on and on...

-Gags at any textured food. (while this has gotten better with OT she still has troubles eating more solid food)

-Hits EVERYTHING on her head. She has to hit every toy on her head. She has to put her head to the floor to feel people walk by. If she wants to touch something she can't bring to her she will just bang her head on it.

-HATES having her arms touched. ABSOULUTELY could not ever swaddle her, PT with her is a large crying session because she won't bare weight on her arms so our PT tries to hold her arms and put weight on them and she SCREAMS the entire time.

-Doesn't make very good eye contact at all. Sometimes it is if she is looking right through you. But other times she will look right at you.

-She is happy playing by herself and a lot of times prefers it to be that way.

-She loves being held and giving hugs but doesn't like giving kisses or having her face touched.

-She will NOT eat any cold food. It either has to be room temperature or hot.

-She has to scratch EVERYTHING. she has done this since she first discovered her hands. Every new thing, person, toy, furniture, etc. she has to scratch at it for a couple of minutes before checking it out. And then usually proceeds to lick it.

I'm sure there are other things that I might be forgetting but this is the majority of them.

Any ideas anyone has would be GREATLY appreciated.

[babygirlie]

my 14m old does a lot of that too. she must scratch everything like her bottle, she gags at solid foods and if heaven forbid one gets in her tummy she will throw it up. She just recently figured out how to lick food and now eats hair and carpet..but not actually food. *sigh* She also closes her eyes for kisses but I thinks he's afraid of hair getting in her eyes. She also took a huge chunk of my face and bit it. That hurt.She rarely makes eye contact... but then again she watches a lot of tv and if her show isn't on she flips out. I might have to look up what this is in your title

[hdirks]

Originally Posted by babygirlie

my 14m old does a lot of that too. she must scratch everything like her bottle, she gags at solid foods and if heaven forbid one gets in her tummy she will throw it up. She just recently figured out how to lick food and now eats hair and carpet..but not actually food. *sigh* She also closes her eyes for kisses but I thinks he's afraid of hair getting in her eyes. She also took a huge chunk of my face and bit it. That hurt.She rarely makes eye contact... but then again she watches a lot of tv and if her show isn't on she flips out. I might have to look up what this is in your title

SPD is sensory processing disorder. There is a lot of information on it online but it would be useful to hear other parents views and see if this is similar to their experiences. I don't know how much carpet she has actually digested yuck!

[hdirks]

does any of this sound familiar to any of you spd moms? Thanks.

[marge234]

I'm just learning about sensory issues but it sounds like there's enough in what you're seeing to look into it. I don't know if 14 months is too young for an SPD/SID diagnosis but it's not too young to address sensory issues. Maybe press your EI to connect you with an OT and get an evaluation.

[SpottedFoxx]

Some of those sound age appropriate (playing by herself - kids at that age are still parallel playing) but a lot sound sensory related.

Looking back... I see a lot of signs of SPD in my son (who has been officially diagnosed). Banging his head on the floor was a biggie. He's a seeker so no aversion behavior. However, he preferred heavy handed touches vs. light (back rubs, belly rubs). Never met a baby who liked deep foot massages like my son did. He begs to be tickled. Not a light tickle, a deep, in your ribs tickle.

Do you have a developmental pediatrician or neurologist? I'd recommend talking to them about your concerns and observations. Also, if you have the time, you may want to read "Out of Sync Child". It's about children with SPD and has answered a lot of my questions.

[DaughterOfKali]

I started noticing serious signs when ds was 6 months old.

[Kristine233]

I started noticing at around age 2. Looking back I can pick things out earlier, but I didn't notice them at the time.

For me it was hard to notice anything earlier because so much stuff is just normal baby stuff. Kids that age are huge into sensory input because of lack of other ways to communicate or explore. Kids that age are less mobile, less verbal and haven't fully grasped fine motor or dexterity yet. They improvise. "Mouthing" and licking are super common at that age because of the input they can get from it. I think because of the other global delays you may see some of the alternative methods of getting input being exaggerated some to make up for it, but that doesn't mean its not SPD.

SPD has to do with sensations (all 5 senses) and the regulation of those both through input and output. Examples might be (just a few): Not being able to handle sounds. Not liking light touch but tolerating deep pressure. Not recognizing the difference between a pat and a hit. Not able to handle certain clothing textures. It also depends on if the child is tactile defensive (or sensory aversion), is a sensory seeker or a combination of the 2.

Things like social development/play or eye contact wouldn't fall into the SPD category but are often confusing when researching because much of the research involving SPD relates to ASD which does involve those.

The question I always tell parents to ask when they are unsure of whether or not to pursue something is this: "Does the activity/action affect the child in a negative way or limit the day to day more than what is developmentally expected for that particular child (taking all known global development milestones/delays into consideration)?"

So, for us... when my child couldn't play with other kids because his sensory output was physically hurtful to other kids (unintentionally overly rough) and his lack of sensory input was dangerous to himself (not feeling pain, no natural "danger" trigger learned as a result) it limited his day to day and we sought out the help of a OT.

It sounds like you already might have some sort of medical team in place to help with the other issues, so my advice would be to bring up these concerns with them and perhaps see an OT for an eval to help you figure out what is normal vs not for your daughter. Because of the other issues, what is normal for your child may be VERY different than what is normal for my child or any other child. If I were you I'd be looking to find out what I should be watching for as far as "normal" for my child and an OT or developmental ped should be able to help you with that and point you in the direction of the right person if your daughter isn't on the right track.

Not sure if that helps but I hope you get the answers and help you are looking for!