Behavioral rxs / Sensory Processing

[LaurieG]

If you have a child, or yourself for that matter, who reacts to foods with an extreme behavioral response has your child been able to explain to you what is going on in his/ her body? I would love to hear it if so.

The reason I ask is that DH and I were just having a debate about it. DH is of the opinion that DD's extreme irritability when exposed to soy is due to physical discomfort - like her belly hurts and it makes her irritable. I'm not so sure because every time I ask her if anything hurts of feels uncomfortable she says no. DH says you have to assume her tummy is uncomfortable because she has diarrhea, but the diarrhea isn't always at the same time as the behavior. Plus, she gets diarrhea in response to milk exposures but doesn't get the extreme behavior.

My thought is that the soy somehow affects her on a neurological level - maybe affecting her neurotransmitter activity somehow. DD tends to have some sensory processing dysfunction anyway but when soy is in the picture those sensory issues become much more obvious. Working on this theory, and because I just had an OT eval yesterday focused on sensory processing, tonight I tried some sensory input to calm her down and it worked (when in the past pretty much nothing has worked when she gets like that). She is sleeping right now which is unheard of typically with a soy reaction.

Do any of your kids also have SPD and do you notice a marked change in the way they process sensory input when they are reacting? And if they are old enough to tell you, do they say they are physically uncomfortable and that makes them more sensitive?

[mountainsunshine]

My 5yo has SPD and ASD. when she has dairy her sensory seeking/needyness gets more intense. It's like she just needs to run full force into a wall a few times and then maybe crash several times for good measure. Her noise stimmy behaviors increase also which tell me that she is having trouble processing noise. She will say that her belly hurts and I am not sure if she gets all sensory out of whack because she hurts or if the two are seperate. HTH

sarah

[dulce_mami]

I believe that the sensory/behavioral issues are separate, or more precisely, that they are not caused by the physical discomfort. My DD who has been potty trained at night for a long time would wet the bed for few days in a row without complaining about tummy aches. Also, she would be very loud many hours after she has had the offending foods, whereas she may have had (or not) a tummy ache just for a little while after the meal. It seems to me that the B-complex I have been giving her helps with the behavioral issues, but I got to the point at giving her 4 times the required dose (i.e. 4 droppers) and I am getting a little worried about overdosing, so now I am trying to keep it under 2 droppers a day, which does not seem to help as much.

[changingseasons]

No SPD here, but DD does have a few foods that give her major, major behavioral reactions- corn and calcium are 2 things off the top of my head. And no, she absolutely cannot explain it and when asked will tell you that nothing hurts and everything is fine. And then she'll proceed to slam her head into the floor and hit people.

She can't explain it any more than I can when I'm having a food reaction. Had it not been for DD's allergies, and me observing her reactions, I never would have made the connection between what I eat and my behavioral reactions. Now, on occasion, when I'm just in a horrible mood- very short-tempered, irritable for no reason, etc.- I can think about what I've eaten and realize that I'm reacting to something. And even then, I can't give you a specific pain or problem in my body, it's more of an overall crappy feeling. Hard to explain- maybe like when you're coming down with a cold or something- you don't have any coughs or sore throat yet, but you're fatigued and irritable and something is just off, kwim?

Hope that makes sense. It really helped me be more understanding with DD's reactions when I realized that even I, as an adult, couldn't always associate "horrid temper" = "shouldn't have eaten those eggs (or whatever) earlier."

[deditus]

What I notice in dd and myself:

the biochemistry being thrown off from the reaction - the stress uses up nutrients and definitely makes sensory stuff worse and this may not all be noticeable, and why adding nutrients can mitigate a reaction
for instance, I used to get panic attacks at the mall, however I thought it was the loud music, crowds, and bright lights together that got me but I now know that PERFUMES were a huge part of that reaction, so things you may not think about impact reactions and the body's ability to detox substances
dd has accidentally gotten mayo that has SOY and EGG in it and had no reaction, which I credit to her bucket being empty at that time as she has reacted to much more trace amounts than that - especially soy

dd is just NOW at 4 yo able to tell me better when she is in pain, before she would just cry, want to nurse, be clingy, etc and also I think being in pain was her normal, so she is finally starting to adjust to a new normal

I think that since her previous normal=pain led to problems with sensory integration and so she needs to "catch up" on that front of development

[mamafish9]

I think that the distinction between physical and sensory (or emotional, or neurotransmitters) is not really clear, especially for a child.

My son has sensory reactions to things, sometimes food, sometimes other things. And sensory play often calms him, but that doesn't necessarily mean the root of the issue was sensory. It's just a way to help him cope.