strings & tape

[earnestfamily7]

OK... this morning while straightening my DS10's bedroom. I found a number of odd things all wrapped in duck tape! and yarn & strings all tied up in closest (like super mesy spider web) some of the tings that were taped were 56 pens in a row making a long rod thing... there were 4 of these... paper.... and boxes.... I have said in the past to my husband in the past that I think DS has amild hoding thing as I ften find strange items that I call trash (old water bottles, wrappers, balls of foil, foam inserts , old sticker sheets, anything the teacher asks if the kids want before she pitches it.... ususally come home with him... ) Is this tape and string thing related?

[Santi]

OK... this morning while straightening my DS10's bedroom. I found a number of odd things all wrapped in duck tape! and yarn & strings all tied up in closest (like super mesy spider web) some of the tings that were taped were 56 pens in a row making a long rod thing... there were 4 of these... paper.... and boxes.... I have said in the past to my husband in the past that I think DS has amild hoding thing as I ften find strange items that I call trash (old water bottles, wrappers, balls of foil, foam inserts , old sticker sheets, anything the teacher asks if the kids want before she pitches it.... ususally come home with him... ) Is this tape and string thing related?

 

My son loves to duct tape the house and wrap tape around objects. OT's actually use this in some of their sessions. Its a sensory thing. I let my son do it (anything to relax him) and then we throw it out. He also likes to hoard odd objects. A

[kimballot]

Hoarding has been an issue for us in the past. My son had a great deal of difficulty discarding objects (even garbage off the street) when he was younger. The things he hoarded in his room were tied in with rituals - like sleeping with stuffed animals all in a certain location at night to protect him. (I'm not talking about 3 or 4 stuffed animals - I limited him to 30 and made him keep the rest in bins in his room and even at that it was usually up to 50 when I washed his sheets each week). Does your son spend time in his room alone - perhaps playing in the closet? I am sure these items have a special purpose to him and I would ask about it. There is likely a ritual or fantasy attached to them.

[earnestfamily7]

my son also has a thing with stuffed animals... He also surrounds himself with them... there are about 25 in there right now and I also found some of his younger brothers and sisters that he has in there.... He surrounds himself with pillows and stuffed animals. Recently he has begun taking pillows from everyone's bed often leaving the rest of the family pillow-less.... He takes them from his brothers after they are sleeping.... (I talked to him about not doing this and he got very upset... but I did give the other kids their pillows back) Right now in addition to all the stuffed animals there are 8 bed pillows and a long body pillow... Also, since the last exasperation in Nov he has only slept in his bed approx 5 times.... and only 1 time through the entire night... he ends up in our bed and he rings the pillows and all the stuffed animals with him...

 

I will ask him about the closet after school... He doesnt spend much time alone up there... I am guessing he did it after i tucked him in last night.... he was in his room for about 30 min before i heard him run to my room several times (I am sure he needed to go back for more 'friends') This morning I told my husband we are going to turn the Master bedroom into a nursery like on Peter Pan... that way all 5 kids can be in there and then we can have the other bedrooms for us.... but then I realized that the the kids would catch on and we would all be squashed in a smaller room.... (my DD7 also PANDAS has bedtime issues too... doesnt like to sleep in own bed or stay in bed all night....)

[Tenacity]

Yes -- lots of tape, strings, odds and ends... My son is artistic, and we used to chalk all this up to creativity. However, over time, the behavior took on stranger and more troubling forms, and it became apparent that it was not simply a product of creative inspiration...

[kimballot]

My son's stuffed animals, pillows, and particular blanket placement were always for "protection". Somewhere along the way I stopped letting him climb into bed with us (even though I let my older daughter do it if she had a bad dream). Instead - I told him to call me and I would come to him. It was not easy, but at least I had a little more control and he was in his bed. When he had a bad exacerbation at age 10 I had to lay down with him every night with his lights on and all the stuffed animals around him.

 

Eventually, I was able to move to the foot of the bed and read a book while he fell asleep - then to the desk to do work while he fell asleep with only the desk light on... then I'd sit in the hall and do work.. you know the drill.

 

I think we did sticker charts or kept points ... no.. it was tickets. A big roll of blue tickets from the dollar store. He got tickets 3 tickets every night and he had to give one up when he got out of bed. The tickets somehow added up to special treats or a trip to the dollar store or something... Somehow it all clicked eventually. About a 1 1/2 years ago I discovered melatonin and that has been a huge help in the sleep preparation battle.

 

If it is any consolation, he is 13 now and, though he still asks me to lay down with him for a few minutes when he is having an exacerbation, the stuffed animals are all tucked away in the attic and I did not find any garbage the last couple spring cleanings!

[Suzan]

My 7 yr old tends towards hoarding too. Lots of rocks for us but really everything. For some reason this also reminded me that my dd's used to lay out blankets all over the floor so that no floor could be seen. They would do this for hours and hours, day after day.

 

Susan