(HBOT 69) Sensory Problems Cutting Toe Nails Gone

Today started rather refreshing. Today Monday is Labor Day so there is no work or school. We were all in bed. He came over to our bedroom and with a happy voice said "good morning". He laid down next to Daddy but decided to come over to my side. Woke me up and said "mommy, I want sleep with you because I love you". That was cute.

The kids got up and played beautifully. They went to Jonathan's room to read books. Even though they cannot really read the words (Jonathan knows a few but not all), they made up stories just watching what was going on in the book. That made me very happy.

They spent all morning together, playing a bunch of pretend games while I separated the supplements (a 2-hour task). Vanessa started hugging Jonathan and Jonathan would hug Vanessa. They were wrestling and hugging. Not too rough so I let them play. Suddenly, Vanessa hugs Jonathan and says "Jonathan, you are my best friend". Oh my goodness, I had a nut in my stomach when I heard that. Jonathan then hugged Vanessa and said "Vanessa, I love you". And Vanessa responded the same way. That was a priceless moment. They suddenly disappeared. When we asked where they were, they said they went upstairs to change. Now, that was something new. Although they did not completely change (they took out a bunch of clothes out of the closet but did not put them on), this is a great beginning.

Today's session was at 1pm. Special one because of the holiday. When we got home, we ate. I prepared ground turkey with potatoes and carrots. I told him that he had to eat it all. It was a bit of a struggle, but he ate most of it. That was a great breakthrough.

Later in the afternoon, he was hungry again and asked me to make spaghetti. I made him some gluten free one and made extra for tomorrow's lunch at school.

In the evening, he wanted to watch a movie and said to Abuita "I am going to watch a movie because this is my house". That was really cute.

Before we went to bed, I bathed the kids and cut their nails. Cutting Jonathan's hand nails has never been problematic. I started doing it since he was born and he always let me. Same with Vanessa. But the feet were a different story. When he was a baby I could cut them. Up until he was about 14 months old. After that, it because a battle. When he turned 19, Daddy had to hold him down and I had to really grab his feet hard. After the diagnosis, I learned about a disorder (very common in children diagnosed with autism) called Sensory Integration Disfunction. Basically, his central nervous system was not sending the right information all the time, and his senses were out of sync. Stuff either hurt him too much or did not at all. For instance, he could fall down in a driveway and not feel the pain, but cutting his toe nails was like killing him. He was very sensitive to sounds and had to cover his ear. But could not smell things very well. It is more involved than just these samples, but we worked hard with his OT (occupational therapist) to wake-up some of the nerves that were not responding so they could help with the ones that were overly responsive. We brushed his skin at first about 8 times a day. As many times as we could remember. We did Tomatis (auditory processing) to assist with nervous system, etc. Little by little he had become better at controlling his impulses. If he knew something was coming, he would not overreact.

Tonight I was really surprised to notice that he had absolutely no resistance whatsoever when I cut his toe nails. They don't grow too fast, so I cut them once every 2 weeks. Too weeks ago, I still had to fight a bit with him and hold his feet really hard. Today, I didn't. He didn't mind. I asked him if it hurt him, he said no. The moment I pressed his foot harder, he told me I was hurting him. I can tell that it is not that he is now under-sensitive, but that his senses may be more at sync than ever.