Mother, Family Nurse Practitioner

by Steffie
(Minnesota)

I've been to conferences where SPD has been dicussed more in relation to parenting difficulites/errors and missed diagnosis. Some have said the diagnosis is more likely to be Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Autism, or a form of ADHD. Always it seems to be felt to be caused by lack of good parenting... and after all these years of university and working, I feel that our parenting did not cause my child's problems.

All along I have thought, felt, or known, that there was something wrong with my daughter.

Within 2 hours of her 2 month immunizations, she cried so terribly. She was difficult to console. 48 hours after the immunizations, I found her unresponsive. She did revive without CPR. The ER staff advised I had "interrupted SIDS" and to go home with an apnea monitor... "not to save her but to know when she died". Four days after the shots, she started having tonic clonic seizures (she was always afebrile). Four days in the hospital with EEG, CT, and monitoring and the physicians said it was either cerebral palsy or a reaction to the pertussis vaccine. I was to watch her for a year and if, at one year of age, she was not developmentally delayed, they would confirm the cause as related to the vaccine.

So she was "late" to roll over, late to crawl, late to walk, late to run, etc. but not so late to be completely alarming. No more seizures, but I have suspected absense seizures. (They say the SPD can cause "spacing out"... anyone else think so?) She vehemently hated daycare. Screamed for hours when arriving. When I would pick her up, to me, her eyes showed complete and utter fear. She would seem dazed also. At the age of 2, she began banging her head, pulling out her hair to loud noises. She hated a disruption in routine. Would never get dirty. Hated (screamed and cried insessantly) at bathtime. Would only eat foods of certain textures. Falls behind the other children in the neighborhood in motor skills (gross and fine).

It took me until she was 3 and 1/2 to convince her physician something was wrong and she needed therapy. She is in occupational therapy and physical therapy. She scores in the moderately severe category in the sensory fields and is in the 30th percentile physically.

I searched for another diagnosis to see if I could be missing something. Her immunizations were thimerosol free as far as I can find out. I believe she has SPD. I am asking if anyone can read our story and see similarities or can recongnize symptoms of another disorder?

Thanks so much.