SPD? Different from Day One

My daughter will be 7 this summer. She is beautiful, very bright, empathetic and "different". I had a normal pregnancy except she was breach, anterior placenta, c-section, and cord around her neck twice. She had normal apgars though and was ahead on all her milestones except toilet-training. She never slept though as an infant. Her dad and I slept no more than an hour to two the first four months. She would cry immediatley if we laid her down.




I breastfed, but she was colicy and would pull her legs up as if in pain while crying. She was half soothed by dark rooms, heavy bouncing, and loud white noise. She cried A LOT! Even family didn't come around much at all. She would be up for hours every night.

We ended up having her sleep with us because it was the only way we could get a min or two. By the time she was one, she still hadn't slept through the night. If I tried to get her to sleep in her crib, she would cry until she threw up. She could keep herself awake crying all night if I let her.

The first five months were hell. It got slightly easier after that, but she was sensitive. We hated bringing her places cause it seemed to bring out the worst in her. Everyone thought they had the answer, but nothing worked.

Age 1 1/2 till four, she pulled her hair out at night. We had to shave her head for a couple of years. She is VERY sensitive to sleep deprivation. Now she sleeps without trouble, but even a small change in her sleep schedule will make for a TERRIBLE day! Everyone calls her a "different kind of kid". She is not autistic, she is loving and sweet but SO sensitive and reactive! I feel like I'm walking on eggshells with her. She sees a therapist, but I don't feel like he gets the gist of her yet.

She also has clothes issues. She gets dressed in the morning (no jeans, no zippers or pockets, nothing too tight or too big, no sweaters or hoods, no short socks or socks with decorative stitching) but will lay on the floor saying "ahhhhh" while trying to adjust and tolerate what shes wearing.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? I love her more than ANYTHING, but my heart breaks everyday. She says her life is horrible. I took her to Disney Land and she cried in line for every ride convinced she'd hate it. She played with crabs on the beach but wouldn't put a toe in the water. I just want her to enjoy things like other kids do. Her moments of true childhood happiness are so rare.



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Mar 30, 2011
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For the Hair pulling
by: Kim

You might want to look up trichotillomania. It is a sensory disorder where people pull their hair out without even realizing they are doing it. My nephew has it, and we went through a short phase of it with my daughter about a year and a half ago.

Mar 14, 2011
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My heart goes out to you all.
by: Erin from SD

We had a lot of difficulty with our first daughter, now age 5 1/2. She refused to breastfeed, she had to have a strict sleeping schedule, she spit up A LOT after feedings. Later as a toddler, her language skills were amazing (full sentences at age 2!) and she was very social and imaginative, but she had an extra strong will and bad, bad temper. We started toilet training at age 2 1/2, but are still not completely there! Most days we were completely worn out by being with her and wondered when the fun and tender moments of parenting would come our way.

We first heard about Sensory Processing Disorder in the Spring of 2010, when she was about 4 1/2. We had her diagnosed in the summer as it took our doctor a while to get on board. But we have seen good results from her seeing an OT (at first, once a week for 45 minutes) from August to December, 2010, and now GREAT results from more intensive OT in a group setting. She goes every afternoon for 3 hours (15 hours a week) with 4 other kids.

As parents, we knew something was wrong and that our child, although intelligent, creative, and social, was dealing with something that was too much for us to handle by ourselves. I want to encourage you and your husband to take a look at all the resources you can about SPD and see where it leads.

It took me a while to understand that the difficulties of SPD were creating a very high level of frustration for my daughter, which in turn manifested itself in negative behaviors and an unwillingness to try the things that were hardest for her. But the success she has experienced at OT has brought down her levels of frustration and helped her to see that she can do many things that were once hard for her--sitting quietly, holding a pencil and writing, coloring with crayons, and jumping on a trampoline.

We hope that your inquiries into this disorder will help you and your daughter to learn that, although SPD doesn't go away completely, it is something that can be treated so that your lives can be richer, more relaxed, and filled with all those moments that bring parents and children together in a special way.

Mar 14, 2011
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by: Steve Faherty

New Brushing Protocol Protective Response Regime from the web.

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