Sensory Seekers, the story of Douglas

To start Douglas's day we have to wake him up very slow there can be no lights on as his eyes are very sensitive to lights, he says that lights hurt his eyes. If it is sunny outside we have to make sure we have sunglasses for him. So we start off slow with Douglas, often I wake him up and he is brought to my room to watch television while I get ready for the day (yes the other two are in there as well, but this is about Doug's day)

Once I am ready for the day we have breakfast, Douglas is also my Oral sensory child, or as some say picky eater. But breakfast is easy, cereal, pancakes and fruit. He also loves milk. Again no lights on in the kitchen during breakfast, we can let natural sunlight in through the windows as long as it is not too bright.

Once Douglas is good and awake he spends some time with high impact activities, when he was younger this was pushing a basket across the floor, now it varies. I try to have something he can do to wake up his senses. Of course if it were up to daddy we would not do this.

Then it is off to school. Where his teachers allow him to have lots of high impact activities. I love our school.

Once home we have lunch, this is the tricky meal, can be difficult at times, he is so "picky" no red foods, only Mcdonalds Chicken Nuggets, thank goodness though, he loves Peanut Butter and Jelly, fries and lots of fruit.

After lunch if it is nice we will seek out some high impact activities for him, riding his bike, playing on the play gym, running, jumping etc. Anything that will provide him with high impact activities.

For the most part the trio still naps, Douglas however for the most part will play in his room, he has to always be on the go and active. So he is playing quietly, cars, trucks, trains etc. He has an obsession with anything with wheels.

After nap is play time again, and of course snack time. If it were up to Doug he would be running, jumping etc 24/7 I have a hard time getting him to calm and just sit still, the kids at church say he loves to wrestle.

If Doug gets upset or his feelings hurt he will hide behind the couch or under the table. He needs a dark closed in spot to calm himself down and to get back center. The good thing is Doug Knows this and will put himself in the dark spot to get calm.

Douglas also needs deep compression once a day. we hug him tight, wrap him in a blanket very tightly and will rock. I put pressure on his joints (this is normal a first thing in the morning activity to help awaken his scenes. We also do brushing therapy on his hands feet legs and arms once a day. All together this takes about an hour to two hours a day, depending on his mood.

Bath time is getting much easier with him, he will finally allow water to get in his eyes, he will however not take a shower, it scares him and he says it feels like pens and needles on his skin. I am hoping that swimming this summer will help him with going under more as it did last summer.

It is something different every day, you never know what is going to cause him to get upset or have too much information coming in. He often tells me to turn down the volume when we are out in public. His way of telling me that the world is too loud.

I think that is enough for my sweet Douglas.. Thanks for reading..