Tell Me Something I Don't Know

Well it is practically official.  We have been wondering and diagnosing it on our own for a long time now but it has been made official by a psychologist and an occupational therapist.  It's not like WE did not pretty much know already but now that someone else agrees with us we can say-Cayden has Sensory Processing Disorder.  If you want some light reading then feel to peruse this HUGE website at your leisure but for those of you with limited time and much more interesting things to peruse on the internet.  In a nutshell:
"Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD,  is a condition that exists when sensory signals don't get organized into appropriate responses"  The inappropriate or negative responses interfere with every day functioning and the ability to live a normal life.
 For Cayden this means that he is hypersensitive with some of his senses and hyposensitive with some others.  Some of it is conflictive and kind of overlaps each other.  Here are some of the the issues that are evident in Cayden.

1.  He has an overdeveloped sense of smell to the point that when he smells oranges, or chlorine he will literally gag and sometimes to the point of throwing up.   We can't walk through or be in an indoor swim area without him gagging.  The last few weeks when we have been visiting the Mesquite pool alot, one of us waits outside with him and walks him through the outside gate so that he does not have to smell the chlorine.  He wants to shower immediately after we get home from the pool and he won't eat anything until he cannot smell chlorine on his hands anymore so we have to have lotion or hand sanitizer or something to cover up the smell.   The other day he got water in his mouth at the pool and he started gagging.  Luckily Don was right there and noticed the signs and pulled him out of the pool just in time for him to puke on the cement.  We are not quite sure if that was a taste thing or if it was a smell thing but whatever it is very debilitating for him.
2.  Along with the sense of smell is the sense of taste.  Cayden has always been a very picky eater.  When he was a baby he would only eat smooth foods.  He did not eat meat until he was 5 or 6.  When the family would go for hamburgers we had to stop at Taco Bell and get him a quesadilla.  He has only been eating chicken nuggets for about a year and a half now.  The kid practically lives on peanut butter.  He has a hard time swallowing big chunks of food and we end up telling him alot to spit out some it or we are constantly cutting up his food into little pieces.  He does like steak now but it has to be really little pieces or again he will gag to the point of puking.  Brushing his teeth and the whole orthodontic experience is not pleasant.  We have to sing songs and make up stories about green pigs to help him keep his mind off the toothbrush or orthodontist in his mouth. Thank you SPD.  
3.  Cayden is hypersensitive to sounds.  He constantly covers his ears at movies, plays and parades.  Even though he loves fireworks he is terrified of them too.  He even covers his ears at church when he anticipates anything being too loud like the organ or a musical number.  In an odd contrast though HE is always making noise.  He is either humming or singing or even clicking his teeth.  The specialists we have seen have said (even though I pretty much figured it out on my own) that he does that  as a defense mechanism to self sooth and to block out some of the surrounding noise.  I had an epiphany during the month of March.  Cayden had been coming home from school everyday with a full lunch box.  He was not eating anything or even drinking his juice or water bottle.  Everyday I would ask him why he did not eat his lunch and everyday he would say the same thing.  "I don't know".   He would be starving of course after school and if I did not give him something or ask him if he wanted something to eat or even set his lunch out for him to eat, more often than not I would find him mowing down chips and crackers and even hamburger buns.  Poor baby!  So while doing some reading I wondered if his not eating had anything to do with sensory issues because I knew that he was hungry at lunch time so there had to be more to it.  One afternoon I asked him to come and talk to me in his room and I asked him why he was not eating his lunch at school.  Again he said that he did not know.  Then I asked  him if he was hungry at lunch and he said that he was.  Then I said to Him "Cayden, if you are hungry at lunch, why can't you eat your lunch?"  Finally with a little prodding and coaxing on my part because I had been doing my research he said that he could not eat his lunch because he had to cover his ears because it was too loud in the lunchroom .  HALLELUJAH moment!  Well momma bear called the school the very next morning to talk to his teacher and tell her what I had learned and we put a plan in place for him.  She did tell me that she had noticed that he sort of shut down in the afternoon and now we know why.  He basically got his own table in the lunchroom away from the hubbub and he got to pick a lunch buddy from his class.  They would get to sit together at his table and it was their job to help each other finish their lunch.  It worked out really well and will definitely be a part of school next year for him.  I just wish that I had figured it out sooner or someone else would have.  When we went to Disneyland the last time in May, we took ear plugs for him to block out some of the noise around him.  We also try and remember to let him wear them at the movies or anywhere else he may feel overwhelmed.  I have resorted to keeping earplugs in my purse with me but even that is not enough some times.  We have to rethink our activities and how they could possibly have an adverse affect on him.    
4.  Cayden also struggles with two to other areas that are not that well known or associated with our senses unless you are familiar with them.  The first is vestibular which has to do with balance and the other is proprioception. Proprioception manifests itself as kids who are clumsy, uncoordinated, and have difficulty performing basic normal childhood tasks and activities.  These two kind of go hand in hand. That is why it is hard or even impossible for Cayden to ride a bike, ride a scooter, climb the jungle gym, and even play sports.  It is also part of his timidity and why he does not want to try new things or even "normal" things. 
All of these things present special challenges for him and our family.  He needs to go to therapy with an occupational therapist to help him with these challenges.  He has been receiving some services at school but the problems persist and he needs more than what the school can offer.  Of course there is not anyone local that can do this for him so we will be going to St. George atleast once a week to see an occupational therapist.  Sensory Processing Disorder does not ever go away but it can be managed and skills can be learned but it just takes longer.  In addition to the therapy for the SPD, he will be getting some extensive testing to determine if or what specific learning disabilities he has.  I guess we just don't have enough to do around here.  If you have any extra change laying around feel free to send it to the Jen's Sanity Fund.