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Anyone dealing with issues on changing clothes


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My son would rather stay in the same clothes until they dissolve on his body! I still continue to have an issue getting him to take showers and to change his clothes.

I finally settled on letting him change into clean clothes the night before and he sleeps in them.

 

I am so embarrassed to admit he only takes a shower once a week. It is just too much trauma to fight it everyday.

 

I scour the stores finding the softest t shirts, with no tags, socks with no seams and currently he will only wear the long basketball type shorts but they have to have pockets.

 

I have accepted a "new normal" regarding this. I pick my battles!

 

I just wanted to vent and see if others are experiencing this. His first diagnosis was sensory integration dysfunction. I am wondering if it has always been the PANDAS.

 

Thanks...

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Hello

 

Even before we saw any real episodes, our dd had the sock thing. It started as having to turn socks inside out cos of the seams. Then we had to move onto socks with no seams (socks for diabetics) and we also had "naked baby" where she would be clothesless in the house, just her nappy... always taking her clothes off when she came in.. this all started maybe as early as 2 yrs old. At the time it just seemed cute and quirky.

 

When she had her 1st episode that we noticed, the clothes thing got really difficult.. no socks and only a couple of items of clothing she would wear. I somewhat gauge her status by how she is with clothes....at the moment she wears anything and leaves clothes and shoes on when at home.. so I know we're in a good place at the moment :-)

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Yep. My son had major changing clothes issues. It's sad to say, but for awhile I had to tackle him, hold him down, and change his clothes. It was suggested it was sensory, but I don't think it was because once the clothes were on him, he was okay. He also has major issues w/ deciding what to wear, yet I could not choose his clothes for him. There were times he was changing his own clothes, but the process would take forever. When I'd check on him, he'd be sitting there naked (sometimes in the corner). Very sad sight. These were some of the reasons why he took so long getting ready in the morning. He aso had issues with getting his shoes on.

 

As for bathing, my son once went 2 weeks w/o bathing. He was only 5 so it's not like he smelled or anything, but the bath before that he was like a wild animal. I had to strip him, carry him screaming and kicking, then have my husband hold him while he stood and I bathed him. Luckily, that extreme adversion to the bath was only that one time. I figured if I gave him enough break between baths that time, he would perhaps forget that awful experience and not freak out again.

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My daughter has developed significant sensory issues with clothes, no socks,no coats, no pants, no underwear,no long sleeve. I also have spent tons of money trying to find the right shirt. I am also a pediatric OT and I have tried the sensory brushing protocol on her and this senory dysregulation is from the brain inflamation and is not responding to my typicial SI diet protocal----J

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oops sorry.. I forgot the bath issues we had.. she also didn't like them much and hated hair washing, and hair brushing virtually stopped. Well it did fstop for about 4 weeks at one point and she's got LONG hair. Wwe had a lot to comb when I finally managed to get to it.

 

Sensory integration/defensiveness was definitely a huge part of episodes for us.. Loud noises too were a problem, flushing toilets especially. I imagine it's the increased dopamine that makes them super sensitive to external stimulae..?.....

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My son did have some sensory problems, but I don't know if the clothes were one of them. It makes sense to say sensory. Maybe it was the feeling of removing the clothes, how they brushed on head and skin. Who knows, maybe it was sensory all this time.

 

He did hate having his head touched so it would make sense how having the clothes touch his head would be like nails on a chalkboard.

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Our son has not showered or brushed his teeth in more than 6 months. Contamination fears prevent both somehow (brushing is "messy"; getting out of shower makes it impossible to "stay clean"). He chews lots of sugarless gum with xylitol to clean his teeth (best we could come up with). Instead of showering, he does hot tubs because the chlorine in the water is "decontaminating" to him.

 

Interestingly, Sammy Maloney had these same symptoms (couldn't shower or brush teeth) per "Saving Sammy," and I noticed the same thing in one of the other recent threads that linked to another mom's online article about her son's PANDAS experience. Recall seeing others post about this, too. This seems to be a common pair of symptoms for PANDAS?

 

As far as clothes go: since this thing started, our son will only wear black clothes - shirts, pants, socks, shoes - and they have to fit exactly right or he won't wear them. But he does change his socks and shirt every night, which is a relief!

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We had about 2 years here that my daughter would not wear any clothes- but only at home. We tried to fight it at first, and once in awhile we'd decide to try to fight it again...but we were never really successful until shhe got on prophylactic zith. We still get relapses of nudity once in a while. The bathing has been an issue as well- we can either sponge her off during those times (hey. she's naked anyway) or can sometimes coax her into a bath by bringing things she obsesses over in with her.

 

Poor kids, it must be terrible to be so scared of ordinary things in life.

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This was one of my dd's biggest issues. Luckily, she was in Kindergarten last year. She wore her pjs to school for a month. Couldn't wear panties. As she was recovering she found one outfit she liked, and wore that every day. When she went into "remission" she wore whatever she wanted.

Dut- like you I base my daughter's status on her clothing issues. We are in an ok place. She cannot wear anything, but does have many outfits she wears :)

 

She also hates the bath. Luckily she is tiny- so I just put her in. Once she is in- she enjoys playing in the water. Getting dried is stressfull for her.

She hates having her hair brushed, teeth brushed, etc. She is small, so I force it once per day. If she can yell at me- it seems to make her feel better (maybe that is her compulsion).

 

Although this was bad, I think being so little made it easy. I cannot imagine a 10 year old girl feeling this way :(

 

I certainly lowered my standards, and chose my battles.

 

Pandas certainly teaches you a lot about what is important in life :(

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I don't know if my ds's little clothes quirks are related to anything or just a preference has but he won't sleep with socks (his feet are freezing) He also would cry that his clothes were sticking to him if they were the tight fitting kind... but it was mostly in the summer when he was hot that he would say that so it might have been that he didn't like feeling hot with clothes so tight on him.. not sure. Some nights he slept in just boxers because of it. I never gave it much thought though since it was not a significant problem and I figured he just liked certain fits of clothes better than others and he wanted looser pjs.

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We have a lot of sensory issues around clothes, showers/baths and teeth brushing. My dd8 will go from having to shower every day and change her clothes a lot to not wanting to change her clothes or shower at all. She never wants to brush her teeth but now she has a cavity that has to be filled and this is kicking in her obsessive behavior for teeth brushing.

 

We often change clothes in the evening into what she will wear to school the next day and this sometimes helps encourage a bath (with epsom salt soak). This helps solve a lot of morning problems. I don't force showers or baths any more, I do work towards 2 a week but there are many weeks where theat doesn't happen. The summers are great because of all the swimming we do.

 

Susan

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we had alot of clothes issues in the past, alot of frustrating and loud :( mornings getting ready for school. wouldn't/won't wear pants with buttons, if the sweatpants rode up on his ankles, that was a problem, he has all kinds of quirks about pants, the latest is he won't wear the shiny type sport pants now because they "attract" hair (I think he means the cat hair). So his uniform is basically long shorts, big t shirt and a hooded jacket with zipper and "no show" socks.

 

he used to drive me crazy with tying shoes, I had to tie it every morning for him til about two years ago and it had to be very "TIGHT" said he.

 

Now its his hair that's an issue, its a longer style and he has unruly wavy hair, so it freaks him out every morning, all I hear is groaning and shrieking. if I try to inervene, LOOK OUT!, LOL. :(

 

He always takes a long time in the shower, doesn't hurry up and just soap up, its a long drawn out affair no matter how many times I prompt him, so yea, I have taken to two times per week so I don't have to waste alot of time on this along with the homework and everything else he has "time management" problems with.

 

Faith

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