Child vs. Shirts

This story begins back when he was just 3 months old and we were already having to buy him shirts for a 6 month old…  born at a modest 7 pounds and 2 ounces, we had no idea that he’d grow so quickly.

At 3 years old, he was wearing clothes for a 5 year old… by 6, he was wearing clothes for an 8 year old.

Basically this meant that any clothes we bought him one summer would be donated by the next summer. In some cases, clothes we bought him at the beginning of summer were no longer fitting at the end of summer.

His shirts didn’t last very long but they usually survived to be handed down to his little brother or donated.

That brings us to our current problem…

Satisfying the senses

My son has taken to the habit of stretching his shirts such that the collar comes down across his shoulders, or he pulls his arms up into his shirts and stretches out against it.

Worse than that, he now chews on the collars and the ends of his sleeves as well.

The frustrating part of this is that just a year ago, we had a lycra bag that he could get into and stretch against as much as he wanted. This is an actual therapy tool for those that need that kind of stimulation.

Cameron had no interest in it.

Now we’re a year later and he’s running out of shirts.

We have an appointment to discuss this with his therapist but honestly, I am semi convinced I already know what needs to happen… we need to try what we tried before.

I don’t know if it will work, but if it does, it will certainly prove just how complicated Autism treatments can be. Not only does no one treatment work for every single person, or to varying degrees, but it also shows that what might not work at one time may work at another.

As children develop, as lives change, as situations are constantly in motion… the needs of the individual can change too.

It’s one of those very frustrating situations because not only is he going through shirts quicker than ever before but, as an Autism family, we have less money than ever to be replacing them.

We try to keep on top of him, to remind him to stop but honestly… have you ever tried to get someone to stop tapping their foot, pen, fingers, knee… those things that people do without even realizing it… how do you stop that?

It’s just that much worse when there’s an actual NEED to do it… such as sensory stimulation.

I guess we’ll just have to talk to his therapist and see what our options are.

Stuart Duncan

I am the father of 2 great boys, Cameron (Autistic) and Tyler, his younger brother. Founder of Autcraft.