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Temperature Regulation

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Does anyone, or your children, have difficulies in responding 'appropriately' to the outside temperature? I seem to often get this wrong, but it really doesn't bother me, so I was wondering if it was actually a problem / whether it could have any implications.

 

For instance, I can sometimes be found in the middle of a hot summer in two jumpers and a coat and saying I'm fine, and then at 7am this morning, when I knew it must be cold because there was frost on the roof, I was quite OK walking about campus with just a thin short sleaved shirt - till I got told off on two separate occasions once by security and once by a cleaner and told to go put a a jumper on because I must be freezing, but the thing is I wasn't, I felt absolutely fine.

 

So my questions:

a) does anyone else wear what might be called 'inappropriate' clothing for the temperature (and this isn't a sensory thing in terms of the feel of the clothes, because I have jumpers I like, I just didn't feel cold)?

b)Is it a problem - could I not be feeling cold but actually be cold (or vice versa) and could this have any longer-term consequences? :unsure:

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Hi Mumble

 

Yes, DS is like this. I always have to tell him to put a jumper or coat on as he doesn't feel the cold. In the same way, I have to remind him that if doing sports all the other kids have their jumpers off, they must be warm so he should take his off too!

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Hi Mumble - my son hates coats and doesn't seem to feel the cold. He always insists he's fine in a T-shirt. We do get funny looks sometimes when we're out in cold weather but son insists he's OK. If it's mega cold I do make him wear at least a jumper or hoody! Don't think it's anything to worry about unless you're off up the fells when obviously hypothermia would be a big problem! :rolleyes:

Being cold doesn't make you catch a cold.

Take care now and wrap up warm! :shame::thumbs:

Luv Witsend.

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My youngest dd especially struggles with this. She would wear summer clothes in winter and vice versa given the option, although I would say we struggle more in cold months, rather than in warm ones. She seems to get hot quickly too, and dislikes coats, fleeces, jumpers or cardies. At the mo it is beginning to get quite cold and frosty here, but she would still like to wear ankle socks, a polo shirt and nothing else to school. I find it really hard to know how to deal with it and I've lost count of the amount of meltdowns we've had over her refusal to wear appropriate clothing. Both my girlies also sweat and overheat alot, especially in bed. I have to watch my eldest dd carefully, because she is now 10 but thinks nothing of stripping off for bed, and then wandering round the house half undressed.

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I am exactly the same I dont feel temperature either which I think is very useful but also very dangerous! For example everyone has many layers on and I feel fine in a tshirt but my lips are a strange tinge of blue! Then someone says your cold! Because of the course I am on (outdoor education) we spend alot of time outside I have told or rather my TA has told the class that I dont feel tempertatures as then there dont feel that there are interfering if there say "Its cold, X go but a jumper on!" Normally its my TA who tells me but everyone else will also tell me!

 

I also cant tell the temperature of water, if its hot I dont know until I have blisters on my hands!

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My lad is very over-sensitive to heat, but doesn't seem to notice when he's cold. He'll overheat really quickly in the summer and turn bright red on a ten minute stroll, getting hysterical because he feels uncomfortable and itchy and sweaty, but he'll sit outside with his hands in the frozen pond water totally engrossed in his snail searches and not seem to register until later just how cold his hands are. Could be that he's so busy, that he just doesn't recognize that he's cold, because he will feel it later, but just not at the time.

 

~ Mel ~

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Mumble

 

Bill has the same sort of problems.. during the winter he will wear t-shirts.... and in hot weather he will walk round with his coat on and hood up! Bill has sensory integration dysfunction and when I filled in the sensory profile, temperature tollerance and interpretation/confusion made up a section on it's own.

 

flora :)

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Thanks for all your replies - they're really interesting - and for once (:rolleyes:) it seems it's not me being a total looney :wacko:

 

The real probem I have understanding this is that I seem to experience the reverse of what I am supposed to - the wearing a coat in the summer and a t-shirt in winter. If I was just hot all the time I could probably understand it better and just say 'don't feel the cold', but I do - I feel the cold when it's hot and the hot when it's cold :wacko:

 

But Baggy and Flora have picked up on the same:

 

She would wear summer clothes in winter and vice versa given the option

 

during the winter he will wear t-shirts.... and in hot weather he will walk round with his coat on and hood up! Bill has sensory integration dysfunction and when I filled in the sensory profile, temperature tollerance and interpretation/confusion made up a section on it's own.

 

I've never heard of temperature confusion so I'll read more about that - confusion is definately a good word here - because I seem to just be getting them the wrong way around. Understanding this a bit might help me understand myself more in the way I'm learning to do with accepting the noise levels that others think are 'normal'.

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Hi Mumble - Logan doesn't recognise differences in temperature yet - I could put him in a cold bath, or a roasting hot bath and he wouldn't complain either way. Clothing isn't an issue yet because I still dress him because he can't do that yet.

 

Lynne x

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Interesting post. Ds also has trouble with this. I have been known to hide away all summer gear in the winter, because once he is dressed in something, it is the devils own job to make him understand that he needs to change into something more appropriate!

 

Do you actually really not feel the cold/heat? I am always amazed by DS' saying that what he is wearing is fine (even when his body is flushed with warmth from wearing too much in summer, he will claim that he feels fine).

 

Even this week we have had examples of both extremes, but DS is quite happy with wearing shorts on a frosty morning and wearing jumpers and coat on the way home when it is considerably warmer?

 

I thought (presumed) that this was another learning process, but maybe then it is a sensory thing. I will also look into this more.

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The 'little man' does not feel the cold. He will quite gladly run around naked in the garden during the middle of winter. He always feels warm to the touch as well, regardless of how cold it is.

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Do you actually really not feel the cold/heat?

Not always - but this is why I am really confused. It's not not feeling the cold, because I do, sometimes. It's that I can feel things totally the wrong way around, particularly with extremes. So on a hot summer day I'll wear a jumper and coat and say I'm cold. On a frosty day (and particularly with snow), a T-shirt can feel right. But it's definately not a summer = coat, snow = t-shirt thing, it's a sometimes summer = coat, snow = t-shirt thing which is why I'm really confused.

 

I don't think it's sensory in terms of clothes (though I do have probs/issues here - need for soft clothes, blue clothes being more comfortable :wacko:, liking to wear the same things etc.) because I have jumpers I like and am happy to wear and fleeces I like.

 

One other sort of related thing (maybe me just being :wacko: again) I can sit by an open window and be freezing and not connect that to close the window would make me more comfortable or particularly know if there's someone sitting closer how to ask them to close the window or to negotiate with them to get it closed.

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