Having scored two weeks off work over Easter this year, my husband and I decided to take our two boys 3 and 5 on a ten day holiday to Kings Beach, Caloundra. A lovely friend had put us on to a fantastic apartment block right on the water…we could walk to the beach, the park, restaurants, shops….awesome location.
Both the boys were very excited about going to our Holiday House. Our older son with SPD has a fantastic memory, and as we have taken him on similar holidays he talked non stop the whole couple of hours drive there…remember this, remember that….
We were blessed with perfect weather the whole time. After a not so hot and quite wet summer, we were being treated with heavenly Autumn weather! Unfortunately holidays also spell changes to routine, new sensations, strange places.
Our first trip to the beach – all of a minutes walk away – started off well enough. As soon as we hit the sand off came his thongs, he didn’t like the sensation of the sand rubbing between his feet and the rubber. No problem though, walking on the sand in bare feet suited him fine. Both he and his little brother love the water, and “wave jumping” became our new sport. All went well until A’s long board shorts started to irritate his legs, “my legs are itching!” he was yelling out in distress. Trying to placate him I said “it’s ok, its just the sand and the water, your legs are okay”. He got more and more upset, to the point where I asked him if he wanted to get out….”NOOOOO….I’m still wave jumping!” …continue reading
Jack has been in aquatic physical therapy for almost a year now. It is the most recent therapy we’ve added and we definitely see a benefit. Believe me, those angry kicks in the gut during diaper changes hurt much more now than they did a year ago!
I guess that wishing for Jack to gain more strength so that he can walk farther on his own without being carried may have back-fired on me. Just goes to show that you should be careful what you wish for…you might just get it.
I agree with Jack’s developmental pediatrician that there is no way he would have done land-based physical therapy. He’s simply all over the place. In the water, there’s only so far he can go unassisted. He now does 30 minutes weekly of land-based physical therapy at school, but I see the most benefit from the hour in the water.
The water. Jack has a love/hate relationship with the water. We’ve oscillated from periods of relative happiness with the water to months of all-out screaming, kicking, flailing, yelling, crying meltdowns that leave both Jack and this mama spent.
However, I really do not believe that the problem lies with the water itself, but rather all of the stuff that comes with the water. For example, bath time is particularly pleasant because of Jack’s intense tactile sensitivity. So, no face washing, no washcloths, and absolutely no foamy soaps. We tried introducing bath foam (it looks like shaving cream). He screamed like we were suggesting that he put his hand into boiling water. We thought, maybe it’s the color and smell of the foam (it was pink and cherry-scented)? So, we tried just good-old-fashioned (and cheap!) shaving cream. No dice, my friends. It’s just the foam. Soap can’t get too foamy or bubbly, either, or else it sets him off. …continue reading
