Our 7 y.o. dd has autism, specifically Asperger syndrome or HFA. She is in first grade and she is trying desperately to fit in with the other girls.
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She has very strong clothing preferences, and she is plus sized. We were just putting her in larger clothes, but she ran through all of the clothes at Justice, her favorite store.Â
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She insists that her clothes be blue, and she has severe sensory issues. Her tummy is very sensitive to waistbands, probably due to the huge surgical scar just above her navel from when she was an infant.Â
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She strongly prefers that her clothes have images of dogs, which are her fascination.
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She is very tall for her age, and wears 20 at Justice, but their pants only go to size 18. She can wear dresses, but that means she must wear shorts or leggings under her dress. She grew five inches last year, which really threw me for a loop. Just as I thought I had some clothes that would work for a few months, she was outgrowing them.
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She was recently diagnosed in November. We are working with one nutritionist, and her pediatrician on her weight issues. We are going to start physical therapy in January, so that may help with the clumsiness that make her avoid physical challenges. I also need to address my own obesity and her sister's total food aversions. We are going to add a nutritionist who specializes in autism in January as well. She just had her IEP in December, giving her speech and social skills classes, and she receives private speech and OT.Â
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We are adding PT and the autism nutritionist in January because our home just had to undergo extensive repairs and our insurance out of pocket "reboots" in January so we decided to wait a few weeks. For now, we just really need some clothes, but I would be very interested in your insights regarding autism and obesity.
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Thank you.
