Sensory Processing Disorder
There are days when dealing with my daughter with SPD is overwhelming. I question her future at times. If she can't handle things now, how will she handle things as an adult? Am I doing all I can for her?
I love the autism puzzle as it is a representation of what I deal with. Life is a puzzle at times. What will work? What pieces am I missing? For my daughter it was clear when she was an infant that she was different from my other babies. Yet I did not want to verbalize that. I felt like a verbalization would be labeling her and would somehow hurt her. I was very wrong. When we finally got a diagnosis it was freeing, and helped us help her.
Even as a baby I knew something was off. Her cries were different. She cried like she was in pain. She had a horrible time learning to nurse. She was my worst sleeper. She was constantly sick, continuously getting ear infections. She didn't speak till well after she turned 2 years old. She had to be wrapped to me in order to be happy, yet even that didn't work at times and she'd arch her back protesting being held, but obviously not wanting to be put down either.
There were times that she would be completely uncontrollable screaming, crawling with her head on the floor in circles, hitting and kicking and biting at me as a toddler. Discipling her was a chore. Nothing seemed to work. There was no reasoning with her. There was no way to put her in a time out, as she'd throw herself right out of them. I even tried spanking her (which I know is controversial) and she would turn herself around and slap me. I read every book I could get my hand on, nothing worked. It got to the point that all I could do was put her in her bedroom and I hold the door shut so she couldn't come running out physically hurting anyone in her path. She'd kick the door and scream. I'd stand there trying to talk to her calmly through the door, listening for the sound of her calming down. When I'd open the door she'd lunge into my lap and hold on to me for dear life. It was so confusing to me. She could be horrible one second lashing out and physically hurting her siblings and me, and act like she had no clue what she had done the next second.
At the age of two after her being constantly sick and often hospitalized for low oxygen saturation we met a Chiropractor that taught us about eating whole foods and reading ingredient labels. He worked on her and with his adjustments, and laser treatment near her ears and our changed diet her ear infections stopped. She also started to have much better moods. Yet it didn't completely change. No sugar, dyes, or preservatives made a huge impact on her health. She was no longer being hospitalized or having asthma attacks. Yet her moods were still unpredictable. She still talked very little and her memory was awful. As a preschooler I could show her the same letter day after day, make it with clay, do all the things I had learned as a teacher working with children, and nothing worked. She had no clue what the letters were, she couldn't sing the songs the other kids could sing. Another puzzle to try to solve.
We ended up doing lots of elimination diets and found out she couldn't eat cucumbers, strawberries, spinach, tomatoes, oranges and gluten. Within a matter of minutes she'd have a behavioral reaction from eating these things. Yet on allergy tests these did not show up. We found out from allergist, natural paths and books that a lot of kids like this have sensitive digestive tracks and they react behaviorally. We found out we weren't alone.
For years we worked tweaking her diet, adding probiotics, fish oil. We did Prevagen for a while which really helped her memory kick in. Through a blood panel we found out she was very low in vitamin D, even though we gave her a good diet and supplements. Again, kids with digestive tract issues and behavior issues like this can't always absorb their vitamins. We have done Bach Flower Essence of Heather, Rescue Remedies, homeopathic calm drops. We've found kids herbal tinctures and done calm kids. Anything I've read about I've tried for the most part. We found that some essential oils like Gentle Baby really help calm her down when she's ramped up and Awaken helps her to concentrate.
She has seen an occupational therapist as I wrote about before and we do all kinds of sensory things, brushing her arms, giving her a weighted blanket, she has a hammock over her bed to swing in. We have an in door and out door trampoline. I use rice trays, sand trays, play dough, fidgets.
We got her to the point of being able to function well most of the time. She's able to read and do math at grade level. If she gets over whelmed though through too much input she will go into flight or fight. She'll either clam up and retreats into her shell refusing to make eye contact and not wanting to be touched at all, or she'll act out using her body to push everyone and everything out of her way.
Recently, I started reading a book called Disconnected Kids by Dr. Melillo. He created the Brain Balance program. While reading it I'm in awe of all that he says that relates to my child. The diet he recommends is the diet we are on, with the exception of dairy. I'm doing the tests to figure out which side of her brain is the dominant side. I'm excited to see how this helps her and if she will be able to communicate her own feelings. Right now she is not able to communicate feelings well at all. I want her to have the tools to be able to help herself as she gets older. I can't always be there helping her to calm down, she has to learn what upsets her and how to regulate her own emotions, and that physical aggression is not okay. Let's face it she can't run into people with her body as an adult or kick people she's mad at. That won't work very well.
If any of you have used the Brain Balance system I would love to hear how it worked for you. If you are struggling with a child that seems like a puzzle and trying to figure out what will help them, know you are not alone. If you are scared to "label" your child like I was when she was little know that finding out what's wrong will actually help you give them the tools they need to be successful.
Even as a baby I knew something was off. Her cries were different. She cried like she was in pain. She had a horrible time learning to nurse. She was my worst sleeper. She was constantly sick, continuously getting ear infections. She didn't speak till well after she turned 2 years old. She had to be wrapped to me in order to be happy, yet even that didn't work at times and she'd arch her back protesting being held, but obviously not wanting to be put down either.
There were times that she would be completely uncontrollable screaming, crawling with her head on the floor in circles, hitting and kicking and biting at me as a toddler. Discipling her was a chore. Nothing seemed to work. There was no reasoning with her. There was no way to put her in a time out, as she'd throw herself right out of them. I even tried spanking her (which I know is controversial) and she would turn herself around and slap me. I read every book I could get my hand on, nothing worked. It got to the point that all I could do was put her in her bedroom and I hold the door shut so she couldn't come running out physically hurting anyone in her path. She'd kick the door and scream. I'd stand there trying to talk to her calmly through the door, listening for the sound of her calming down. When I'd open the door she'd lunge into my lap and hold on to me for dear life. It was so confusing to me. She could be horrible one second lashing out and physically hurting her siblings and me, and act like she had no clue what she had done the next second.
At the age of two after her being constantly sick and often hospitalized for low oxygen saturation we met a Chiropractor that taught us about eating whole foods and reading ingredient labels. He worked on her and with his adjustments, and laser treatment near her ears and our changed diet her ear infections stopped. She also started to have much better moods. Yet it didn't completely change. No sugar, dyes, or preservatives made a huge impact on her health. She was no longer being hospitalized or having asthma attacks. Yet her moods were still unpredictable. She still talked very little and her memory was awful. As a preschooler I could show her the same letter day after day, make it with clay, do all the things I had learned as a teacher working with children, and nothing worked. She had no clue what the letters were, she couldn't sing the songs the other kids could sing. Another puzzle to try to solve.
We ended up doing lots of elimination diets and found out she couldn't eat cucumbers, strawberries, spinach, tomatoes, oranges and gluten. Within a matter of minutes she'd have a behavioral reaction from eating these things. Yet on allergy tests these did not show up. We found out from allergist, natural paths and books that a lot of kids like this have sensitive digestive tracks and they react behaviorally. We found out we weren't alone.
For years we worked tweaking her diet, adding probiotics, fish oil. We did Prevagen for a while which really helped her memory kick in. Through a blood panel we found out she was very low in vitamin D, even though we gave her a good diet and supplements. Again, kids with digestive tract issues and behavior issues like this can't always absorb their vitamins. We have done Bach Flower Essence of Heather, Rescue Remedies, homeopathic calm drops. We've found kids herbal tinctures and done calm kids. Anything I've read about I've tried for the most part. We found that some essential oils like Gentle Baby really help calm her down when she's ramped up and Awaken helps her to concentrate.
She has seen an occupational therapist as I wrote about before and we do all kinds of sensory things, brushing her arms, giving her a weighted blanket, she has a hammock over her bed to swing in. We have an in door and out door trampoline. I use rice trays, sand trays, play dough, fidgets.
We got her to the point of being able to function well most of the time. She's able to read and do math at grade level. If she gets over whelmed though through too much input she will go into flight or fight. She'll either clam up and retreats into her shell refusing to make eye contact and not wanting to be touched at all, or she'll act out using her body to push everyone and everything out of her way.
Recently, I started reading a book called Disconnected Kids by Dr. Melillo. He created the Brain Balance program. While reading it I'm in awe of all that he says that relates to my child. The diet he recommends is the diet we are on, with the exception of dairy. I'm doing the tests to figure out which side of her brain is the dominant side. I'm excited to see how this helps her and if she will be able to communicate her own feelings. Right now she is not able to communicate feelings well at all. I want her to have the tools to be able to help herself as she gets older. I can't always be there helping her to calm down, she has to learn what upsets her and how to regulate her own emotions, and that physical aggression is not okay. Let's face it she can't run into people with her body as an adult or kick people she's mad at. That won't work very well.
If any of you have used the Brain Balance system I would love to hear how it worked for you. If you are struggling with a child that seems like a puzzle and trying to figure out what will help them, know you are not alone. If you are scared to "label" your child like I was when she was little know that finding out what's wrong will actually help you give them the tools they need to be successful.
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