beezee
16-09-2009, 23:28
My 3yo daughter has recently undergone an assessment by an OT who has suggested that she may have sensory issues of some kind. We're still going through a number of assessments and referrals and I'm trying to work out what exactly fits within the boundaries of normal and what may indicate a problem ... any advice, similar experiences or any strategies that have helped would be appreciated!
I have three children (DS 12 yrs, DD 3 yrs, DS 6 mths) and have never really had any concerns about either of my boys - I have struggled with trying to work out where the line is between "different kids" and where it's just not quite right. My little girl has always had a few quirks and some of her behaviours are much more extreme than I've had to deal with previously so as far as parenting strategies go I'm definitely starting to feel somewhat out of my depth.
Since birth she has had a complete oral fixation - breasts, bottles, dummies ... pretty much anything you could stick in her mouth. This is fairly stock standard but compared to my other two kids it was always just that bit more extreme. At age 3 I am still struggling to get rid of the bottle (now down to one night bottle and the occasional comfort feed when we're in a real situation). However she has never moved past the oral fixation and will still explore by taste (licking the dog, the table, us!!! etc), she will put flowers in her mouth if we go for a walk, she will find rocks and store them in her cheeks if we go out in the garden. We have had to ban marbles and other small objects where possible from the house because she will pop them in her mouth and just walk around the house rolling them around in her mouth. Our youngest has never been allowed a dummy as it was just far too tempting for her and she would continually steal it from him. I had always thought it was just a passing phase but we don't seem to be moving past it all that well and I guess that I thought we should see more improvement by age 3 than we are seeing.
In addition to the above some of other little quirks we've noticed are as follows:
She has an incredibly high pain threshold - eg. was bitten by a swarm of wasps repetitively and calmly requested that I remove her shirt and look at the "ouch", will ask for needles at the doctors because she likes them etc.
Major tantrums - greater than two hours in duration at their worst (have gotten a bit better over time and now only about 45 mins to 1 hour on average). During a tantrum will kick, scream, bang her head repetitively, trash things etc. Again tantrums are par for the course with toddlers but the length and violence (head bashing etc) seemed excessive?
Obsession with poo painting -months and months of cleaning up the various artwork left around the house has driven me somewhat insane. Did manage to stop this for a while but has made a re-emergence again recently :(
Very little fear of anything much - loves scary experiences - seems to even go out of her to get into scary situations, the type of kid that will (and did) climb to the top of a extra large slide only to jump from the top just to see whether she could do it.
Overly? extroverted - insists on greeting everyone (even strangers in shopping centres who are just passing), professes love for people we've only just met, runs up to people on first meeting and demands "give me cuddles' (MOST inappropriate as the builder giving us a quote was pretty taken aback to have a 3 year old hanging limpet like off his leg demanding hugs and kisses :eek: ).
Incredibly moody - moods change like lightning from super happy to raging. The temper tantrums can then last for an hour or so before cycling back to happy again. Sometimes can cyle from happy to raging and back again four or five times in a day. Will often manufacture a reason to cycle between moods if no genuine reason is available.
I have become pretty much house bound with the kids right at the moment as it's quite difficult to get out of the house - shopping centres are a particularly big no no as they seem to bring on a meltdown within minutes of entry and always seem to end with a rather undignified exit (usually with my 3yo in a fireman's hold over my shoulder!). I have a new six month old bub too which has made me pretty wary of the public meltdowns ie. I generally need both hands completely free to deal with my daughter if she gets into full flight and with a baby or pram in tow this is rarely the case these days.
I am getting rather stressed out by it all as many of my daughters behaviours can actually be quite dangerous - we've already had one visit to A&E this month and two calls to Poisons Information for things going into the mouth etc. I just don't remember it being quite so hard with my eldest - but i have a gap of eight years between the two elder kids and maybe I've just forgotten what is normal three year old behaviour??
Hope this makes some kind of sense (and hope that I'm not posting this in the wrong section for this kind of question).
I have three children (DS 12 yrs, DD 3 yrs, DS 6 mths) and have never really had any concerns about either of my boys - I have struggled with trying to work out where the line is between "different kids" and where it's just not quite right. My little girl has always had a few quirks and some of her behaviours are much more extreme than I've had to deal with previously so as far as parenting strategies go I'm definitely starting to feel somewhat out of my depth.
Since birth she has had a complete oral fixation - breasts, bottles, dummies ... pretty much anything you could stick in her mouth. This is fairly stock standard but compared to my other two kids it was always just that bit more extreme. At age 3 I am still struggling to get rid of the bottle (now down to one night bottle and the occasional comfort feed when we're in a real situation). However she has never moved past the oral fixation and will still explore by taste (licking the dog, the table, us!!! etc), she will put flowers in her mouth if we go for a walk, she will find rocks and store them in her cheeks if we go out in the garden. We have had to ban marbles and other small objects where possible from the house because she will pop them in her mouth and just walk around the house rolling them around in her mouth. Our youngest has never been allowed a dummy as it was just far too tempting for her and she would continually steal it from him. I had always thought it was just a passing phase but we don't seem to be moving past it all that well and I guess that I thought we should see more improvement by age 3 than we are seeing.
In addition to the above some of other little quirks we've noticed are as follows:
She has an incredibly high pain threshold - eg. was bitten by a swarm of wasps repetitively and calmly requested that I remove her shirt and look at the "ouch", will ask for needles at the doctors because she likes them etc.
Major tantrums - greater than two hours in duration at their worst (have gotten a bit better over time and now only about 45 mins to 1 hour on average). During a tantrum will kick, scream, bang her head repetitively, trash things etc. Again tantrums are par for the course with toddlers but the length and violence (head bashing etc) seemed excessive?
Obsession with poo painting -months and months of cleaning up the various artwork left around the house has driven me somewhat insane. Did manage to stop this for a while but has made a re-emergence again recently :(
Very little fear of anything much - loves scary experiences - seems to even go out of her to get into scary situations, the type of kid that will (and did) climb to the top of a extra large slide only to jump from the top just to see whether she could do it.
Overly? extroverted - insists on greeting everyone (even strangers in shopping centres who are just passing), professes love for people we've only just met, runs up to people on first meeting and demands "give me cuddles' (MOST inappropriate as the builder giving us a quote was pretty taken aback to have a 3 year old hanging limpet like off his leg demanding hugs and kisses :eek: ).
Incredibly moody - moods change like lightning from super happy to raging. The temper tantrums can then last for an hour or so before cycling back to happy again. Sometimes can cyle from happy to raging and back again four or five times in a day. Will often manufacture a reason to cycle between moods if no genuine reason is available.
I have become pretty much house bound with the kids right at the moment as it's quite difficult to get out of the house - shopping centres are a particularly big no no as they seem to bring on a meltdown within minutes of entry and always seem to end with a rather undignified exit (usually with my 3yo in a fireman's hold over my shoulder!). I have a new six month old bub too which has made me pretty wary of the public meltdowns ie. I generally need both hands completely free to deal with my daughter if she gets into full flight and with a baby or pram in tow this is rarely the case these days.
I am getting rather stressed out by it all as many of my daughters behaviours can actually be quite dangerous - we've already had one visit to A&E this month and two calls to Poisons Information for things going into the mouth etc. I just don't remember it being quite so hard with my eldest - but i have a gap of eight years between the two elder kids and maybe I've just forgotten what is normal three year old behaviour??
Hope this makes some kind of sense (and hope that I'm not posting this in the wrong section for this kind of question).