We have seen a lot of great changes in Kailey in the past 6 months.
She has:
- been potty trained
- improved her communication and speech
- matured
- developed relationships
and we have:
- found the right medication combination
- worked closely with her doctors
- gained more patience
But with all of the changes, now we are finding that in some areas she is regressing. This last month she has been using the words yucky and dirty. We find that she uses these words in the area that she is regressing. A good example would be using the potty. She was doing so well with this the last few months. But about a month ago, she started telling us she didn’t want to use the potty because it was yucky or dirty. She has started peeing in her panties. Peeing in her panties means that she pees on our floors. This has become very frustrating. We use “night time panties” (night time pull ups) at night, but keep her in her regular panties during the day. When we get busy and are on the go a lot, we put the night time panties on her because she struggles with using the bathrooms in public. For a while we were very busy and she was wearing the night time panties 24 hours a day. When all this stopped, we went back to using her regular panties. Sometimes she will go to the potty but most of the time she won’t.
Another issue we are struggling with is baths. Kailey used to love baths. It was always her favorite thing. Here recently she has been crying and fighting it. She keeps telling us that the bath is yucky and dirty. We have three cats and if there is one cat hair in the bath tub, she literally freaks out. We have started cleaning the bath tub before her bath but this hasn’t helped. When she won’t get in the bath, we are forced to give her a shower. She screams through the whole thing and fights us. But this is the only way we can get her clean and wash her hair safely.
When we got all the medication under control, we noticed that Kailey started eating better. She was eating more variety and eating things we could never get her to eat before. But with these new food choices comes new textures. She has never had issues with textures before. She has struggled with jagging (eating the same thing for every meal, all day long for days and months). When she attended feeding therapy she never had issues with textures. Now she seems to be more aware of them. While my niece was here, she introduced her to peanut butter and Kailey wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day for lunch. One day this past week the peanut butter got stuck on the roof of her mouth and she started to throw up. She has starting choking on various foods and throwing up more lately. Because of this, she doesn’t want to eat at home. She will eat snacks but not meals. She has no problem eating a hamburger from McDonalds in the car but not at home. Each day is different. Some day’s she will eat, some days she won’t. On top of that she has started telling us that Milk is yucky and she doesn’t want it. She will scream if I try to give it to her. But a few minutes later she will ask for it.
All this is new to us and very confusing. We have been told that as she grows we will see various new issues but to actually have a so many changes at one time can be overwhelming. I wish we could make sense of it all, but for now, we will take it one step at a time. Just like we have everything else that has come up. Of course prayer is always helpful too.
I would welcome any recommendations, advice or help you can offer.
Comments
Ladybuggsmom
How old is Kailey? Im finding with my 3y/o that things I had thought were regressions were actually power struggles, not related to her SPD, but to her development and growing cognition and developmentally appropriate. Just reframing it helped me and gave me new tools to handle it.
Good luck!! No matter what it it, its tough. You will survive this season!!!
caringforkailey
Kailey is 4 years old and just when I think this is getting better she steps back again. Very confusing for sure.
Tricia Callahan
I had the same problem with potty training with my daughter. I ended up using Poise liners during the day. I have found when there is a lot of sensory input, she has a hard time telling when she needs to potty. With the Poise, it adds a little extra protection.
caringforkailey
Tricia, I think your comment “I have found when there is a lot of sensory input, she has a hard time telling when she needs to potty.” is a good point. Today for instance, she took off running for the bathroom and said “I go potty now.” Her eyes were huge and by the time she got there she had peed in her panties. Its like she senses it at the minute she needs to go and by that time it is too late.
kelly
I feel like this might be a big stretch but the thing that caught my attention is that you said you finally have the right combinations of meds. So Kailey is feeling better…and if she is feeling better that means she feels differently than before. Things that may not have bothered her before when she felt differently, and I’m assuming not so great, she can now be bother by. Just a thought.
Additionally anytime my kids went through a growth spurt, things that I thought we had under control were no longer in control. The poor sleep would return; food that they ate happily was no longer acceptable, they complained constantly if being itchy…and sure enough someone would need new shoes or their pants would suddenly be too short/tight. Once the spurt was over, we went back to “normal”.
Jenny from the Block
I am not sure. My daughter was a late potty trainer. She resisted strongly the more we tried, so we backed off. We only pushed it around 3 b/c she had to start pre-school, and she finally was ready then as the other were doing it and she wanted to fit in. Still wore pull ups for a while, and a long bed wetting phase. She is 6 now and can control it, but it still hits her out of nowhere. One therapist told me something about it being neuro…the signal not connecting with the brain how it should due to SPD. Not sure. I just know she will say she dos not have to go at all, but then even one minute later might have to go so bad she can barely stand it. One would think if you had to go that bad you would have felt something a minute ago, but she doesn’t. She is now old enough to hold it until she can get to the potty though.
Heather
One reason may be because as the brain learns one new thing, sometimes it has to “forget” something else. My first OT told me to be prepared for that. My oldest son who has SPD didn’t potty train until 4 and my NT son potty trained at 3. All kiddos are different.
EHCMom
I find it interesting that she finds the potty yucky but not the wet panties yucky. That makes me think the wet panties are somehow comforting her and saying the toilet is yucky is just her way of saying she’d rather have wet panties. Were there comforting exercises in her sensory diet that you recently discontinued? Maybe using disposable toilet seat covers would help her. They have some with cute characters on them, and a clean one each time along with a comforting exercise/activity shortly before you know she’s likely to go may get her back on track. Here’s hoping!