Bat Report post Posted April 29, 2007 I wonder if anyone has any ideass for coping with this one? Our youngest is not very good at knowing what her body is trying to tell her; she can't always tell us when she is hungry, thirsty, hot, cold or needs to go to the loo or is in pain. We can check and remind her, but that doesn't work she's adamant that she knows how she feels, so we have meals and snacks at regular intervals; and drinks are offered regularly, we remind her to go to the loo, but she can go for up to 12 hours without going, and telling us she is fine, she doesn't need to go, then all of a sudden she does or she is wet. She has regular meltdowns, and we work through a checklist (hungry, thirsty, toilet, pain, too loud, too bright etc) and usually find the solution, but does anyone else have this, or have any ideas for getting her to recognise the things her body is telling her? Thank you! A Demented Bat Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JsMum Report post Posted April 29, 2007 Hi have you read the book out of syncs child? Its about sensitivity and sensory hypo and hyper, this may have something to do with her signal, J is very much the same, he often goes out with No coat on when its freezing, he doesnt tell me he is cold and I can clearly see him blue, I take his coat with me in a bag and just have as much with me as possible, and just regularly check in with him. I dont insist anymore as this makes him worse, I dont worry too much as he wears underlayers on all his clothes, yes even shorts and short sleeved clothes, so he doesnt feel the cold as much but he is very like you have described and I have put a lot of it down to sensory issues, from the book the out of sync child. from what you have described how you manage her your doing all the right things, the bladder issue may need some further investigations with Gp just to cancel out anything phsical. JsMum Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baddad Report post Posted April 29, 2007 Hi bat - You don't say how old she is, but my own experience with #1 son was that he just had to sort of grow into it, and until he did it was just a matter of making sure that routines took the 'guesswork' out of the equation... He absolutely hated that at first, but as it became part of his life he accepted it, and then he was far happier to be 'bugged' but not have the accidents than he was dealing with the aftermath of an accident... Going through that process I did note there were distinct phases... It's hard to pinpoint any pattern, but certainly there were phases of good awareness/control and then periods where he would slip back and lose awareness again. In the end, i just put this down to other things going on (he'd probably be taking a 'quantum leap' in some other area of development and he couldn't seem to split his resources to cover both, if that makes sense), and we'd return to the old timetabled routines for a while... One other thing I did was get him to 'score' his need on a scale from 1 - 10...A bit of a double-edged sword, because he tends to 'rate' everything, but it did help him to self negotiate his body awareness and signals. He learnt that he wasn't 'safe' beyond about a 'five or six', and that his instinctive feelings about waiting for 8's and 9's were unreliable... Funny thing is - and I'd guess you can identify this too - the signals obviously DID get through, because I became expert at telling when he needed to go from his body language. The problem wasn't between bladder and brain, it was more to do with decoding the signal when it got there. He still needs a prompt sometimes, when he's distracted, but more these days to keep him on track for an early 5 or 6 response rather than as an emergency intervention at 8/9. Hope that all makes sense, and very very best with it... L&P BD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oxgirl Report post Posted April 30, 2007 Hi Bat, Yep, my lad is very much the same. He is 13 now and it's only in the last two years that he's been able to recognize when he is hungry or thirsty. He never, EVER used to say he was hungry and as a baby never cried for food, we just used to feed him at routine times. Even now he'll sometimes say his tummy feels funny and we'll ask him if he thinks he's hungry, and he often doesn't know. He does now sometimes say he's hungry, but it is always just as we are getting his meal ready anyway. With thirst, he still says he doesn't know what thirsty 'feels' like, he just has drinks at regular times. In the last two years he has only started to recognize that he has a sense of smell as well. I'm sure his sense of smell was always working, but, like with the other signals, I don't think he was able to recognize these sensations until very recently. I'd just advise that you carry on as you are and your little girl will gradually start to recognize these feelings as she matures. Take care. <'> ~ Mel ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
julieann Report post Posted April 30, 2007 Hi Bat, My son had a feeling in his stomach and didn't know if he was hungry and needed to eat, needed to go to the toilet or was going to be sick. It has got better as he's got older (17). Julieann Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
