Thought:
Wherever you choose to go, go there with all your heart.
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Like so many families, ours is touched by Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD, Aspergers Syndrome. My daughter was diagnosed in 2009 and while this was a challenging piece of information to initially digest, it answered so many questions about her general “quirkiness.” So many of the traits she had now made sense and I had a way to categorize and help her. Autism Spectrum Disorder / Asperger’s Syndrome became my new topic of research.
Before her diagnosis, a less than loving family member learned of her terror at any sound that was mechanical in nature – vacuum, blender, hair dryer, etc. caused her to cry. Her advice was to place her into a small room with all of the offending noises, turn the appliances on, leave her alone, and shut the door. The very thought of doing this to a three year old, even without knowing that she was on the Autism Spectrum Disorder or not offended every fiber of my mothering soul. I didn’t do it, but used these appliances sparingly, even to the point of leaving the house with her and taking her to her Grammie so that I could run the vacuum.
I learned that her sensory stimuli, resulting from her sensory integration disorder, was something she was always trying to avoid. Her reaction to her stimulus at home was not her being naughty, but truly caused her pain; Knowing the reason for her pain, associated with her Autism Spectrum Disorder, there are many things we now do to help her. I I keep a set of earplugs in my purse (her school backpack, my church bag, and in the car) for her when the noise around her is overwhelming and making her life challenging. She doesn’t react to light, but a busy mall, Target Store (Target sets her off – too many overhead signs), airport, and other busy public places are very distracting for her. She also has sensory sensitivities to touch as well, associated with her Asperger’s Syndrome . These are manifested in things like; her clothing must be very soft and she doesn’t like to be touched by someone walking up from behind, she has issues in having her hair brushed, and shower water is uncomfortable to her skin.
As a result of her need for super soft clothing, she needed allergy free detergents and fabric softener. I was using several times the recommended amounts and not getting the result that I needed for her to feel good in her clothes. Nothing was working and she would pull at her clothes and had problems focusing. With the help of my mother, we developed our own recipes to use in our laundry room. I found that by removing chemicals contained in the retail laundry products my daughter did much better with her clothing softness issues.
I quickly realized just how much I had been spending to try to resolve her sensory integration disorder challenges and in the process found I also received substantial savings. I don’t know if it will work for you and your famliy, but i I can say that it worked for mine.
Any fabric softener has chemicals that shouldn’t come in contact with our skin. there are allot of allergies in my family and softeners are at the top of the list. Hope yhis helps!