What has made life with your SID kids easier?

Breastfeeding.
My sling.
Epsom Salts.
The porch swing.
Pool noodles in his stroller to fit it snugly.
My ergo carrier.
Robeez.
Couscous.
Yo baby yogurt.
Soy milk.
Books, books, and more books... :LOL
Therapy ball/joint compressions.
Matchbox cars.
The dog.
The kitchenaid mixer (if he's really freaking at mealtime, we turn it on for "visual white noise." I love that thing and will cry if it breaks).
OT!!!!

ETA: the bean bin!!!! oh, the beloved bean bin.

We have a home made texture table that I fill with things to give DS the sensory input he needs. We also have one on our covered porch that is for water and other messy stuff.. so even if it is dark out, he can go there and play with water.. which really helps. Dry rice, bird seed, dry pasta.. all these seem to help at times.

I have lots of things to provide the vestibular input he needs.. a small trampoline, a sit n spin (not the singing one), this climbing bar thing we got at Ikea and attached to the wall, a ball to bounce on.. we have a swingset outside too..
But I have to be careful.. he does not know when to stop once his sensory needs have been met.. and if I am not watchful for him.. he goes over and then gets ramped up more... so I also have a quiet box filled with quiet, calming activities.. like cutting, clay, play doh, books, stickers etc...

We made a chart with energy level pictures.. The top has pictures of children being really active.. the middle has pictures of children being calm but ready to learn etc, and the bottom has sleepy pictures.. we drew a road from the top to the bottom and attached velcro dots and a photo of my son. We are helping him learn to move his photo to the level he is at so that we can all work together to bring him down from HIGH energy when we need to..

We have OT once a week too.. that helps...

it all changes from day to day.. some stuff that works one day does not work the next...

Chantal

Quote:
It is just a big (shallow) rubbermaid container filled with dry pinto beans. The container is about 2ft x 1ft, and about 5 inches deep, and I bought two huge bags of dried pinto beans (I think they were 5lb. bags?? can't remember) and put them in the container. Ds L O V E S it. Loves it. He was wary at first (of course), but now, if he's crabby, just pop open the bean bin (he can't get the lid off by himself yet...lol) and let him go nuts. It's a little messy, as he likes to fling handfuls of the beans all over the place, but it's easy to clean up because the beans are large and our den is a very open space with carpeted floor. If you have hardwoods, I suggest you put down a big king sized bedsheet before you do this, to make it easier to collect the beans afterward.

He plays in it like a sandbox (because of course he's still afraid of sand....sigh), filling cups and bowls, pouring, digging, etc.. He climbs into the bin and just sits and kicks his feet in the beans sometimes too. It's really great.

We tried occupational therapy for a few years now and it helped for a short while, such as using a brushing technique when certin fabrics would bother him, and we did the auditory intregration listening program and it would help for a couple months untill the auditory sensories came back, and we did the deep compressions whe he would just jump up and down for hours, but it still, that would help just for a day, etc..........
My son has autism so most of these kids also have SID, and adhd to go along with it. Nicholas, was normal untill he recieved 9 shots in one day and so the amount of mercury he got was enough to make him autistic. Anyway, we started chelation therapy by using td=dmps to pull the mercury out of his body. One of the signs of mercury poisoning is sensory problems....so by removing the toxins it gets better. Also, a high amount of magnisum can help reduce sensory problems, especially auditory sensitivities.
If you haven't yet, you can get a hair analyis done and go by the counting rules. Usually you won't detect mercury in the body unless it was very recent exposure because mercury binds very tightly to the tissues so in most cases, you will not see mercury unless you chelate for a while. By using the counting rules in a hair test, you will see abnormal levels with essential minerals. http://www.ctds.info/5_13_magnesium.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~moriam/HOW_TO_hair_test.html