to shower or not to shower - this is the question

[heleno]

Does everyone have the same problem with getting their aspe son's in the shower as we do? He lost out on seeing his fav programme last night by refusing point blank to go in and this morning it took 2 hours of his dad calmly - i was very impressed - talking to him until he finally went in, and even then he refused to use shampoo as apparently last time he washed his hair the chn at school still asked him why he had long greasy hair so what was the point in washing it!! I despair.

[dooday24]

reece will not wash we hav had to at times put him in bath with all his clothes on as he was rather smelly...........

 

love donnaxxx

[ScienceGeek]

My mum used to have big problems getting me to bath/shower, I think the longest I went was about 1 month. I'm a bit better now, the longest I leave it is 2/3 days.

[heleno]

My mum used to have big problems getting me to bath/shower, I think the longest I went was about 1 month. I'm a bit better now, the longest I leave it is 2/3 days.

so help me and let me know how i can get him to shower - what changed in you that you wash now when you didn't in the past?

[ScienceGeek]

I can't remember really what changed, mostly I was fed up of smelling horrible. It eventually became part of my routine.

Edited December 21, 2008 by ScienceGeek

[heleno]

it doesn't bother me so much - i'll love him come rain or muck! but i worry what others say to him - he's already finding it very hard at school to cope with the horrid comments made by supposdly educated young people. May i ask another question of you, did you or anyone working with you talk to your classmates about your aspergers and if so did it change their attitude to you and how you reacted to things? has anyone else any experience of this? we are not sure what the best course of action is. whether to tell the other chn - and possibly give them extra ammo - or not.

[ScienceGeek]

May i ask another question of you, did you or anyone working with you talk to your classmates about your aspergers and if so did it change their attitude to you and how you reacted to things? has anyone else any experience of this? we are not sure what the best course of action is. whether to tell the other chn - and possibly give them extra ammo - or not.

 

I was only diagnosed about 6 weeks ago. I can imagine even if I did know the majority of people in the school I went to it only would have made them worse. I was just seen as weird and smelly I went to a massive mainstream school, the second largest school in Kent

[Suze]

Hi Helen , not sure how old your son is ........I would guess though that he is at high school??

 

......anyway, give this a go it worked with my son.We sat down together and decieded showering on monday morning, tues evening, thursday morning , and friday evening was necessary to keep a young lad smelling nice ..(he could deciede himself to shower at the weekend but it was,nt necessary he viewed this a his chance to deciede for himself iyswim)

Next we agreed that 3 mins was long enough to shower and wash hair so we used an egg timer so he knew how long he had to do everything etc.He picked his shower gel and soft sponge and I always try and remind him to get a big towel out and put it on the radiator so its warm when he gets out as he hates being cold and wet.He always needs reminding to use deodorant but is getting better and I,ll tell him if he smells etc as he needs to understand that cleanliness is important.

[bikemad]

My son wont shower full stop...hate when we go camping cos theres always showers so he screams the whole site down bigtime. He also hates baths n it is a nightmare to get him to have a bath....infact finally got him in today n all he did was create moan cry whinge the works.

[chris54]

My son will not go anywhere near a shower. Bath on the other hand is, most of the time no problem, he will sit in it until the water is cold. Doesn't do a lot of actual washing but likes to play with the water.Sometimes with bubble bath and some times not. He is 8 now so time will tell how it will go if/when he need to bath/shower cause of pong.

 

 

[KateBall]

One of the things that helped my ds was to keep his hair short. He hated having wet hair dangling down his back.

[pookie170]

This isn't helpful for showering, but when Cal was younger, I found it helpful to give him choices regarding his bath.....it seemed to help him cope, feeling that he was getting some control....I think, anyway...

 

1) Cal was Chief Controller of the Bath Thermometer- he watched for the little strip changing colour, so we knew it wouldn't give him an unexpected shock through being too hot/too cold....

2) Cal got to choose ingredients to add to the bath mix- we kept an old spice rack in the bathroom, with little jars containing ingredients such as food colouring, glitter, baking essences (peppermint, strawb'ry,vanilla etc), bath pearls or powdery things- we both had a blast, it felt like we were witches, concocting a vile brew!! You do have to be careful with this though. Obviously, make sure there's no choking hazards presents in the 'ingredients' -we tried packing foamy shape things once- Cal ate one!!!! And ensure nothing is toxic, o' course. Also, while he ADORED bath pearls, bath bombs or salts were out as they do leave a grainy feeling sediment on the bottom of the bath. Glitter, well we opted for the coarser variety usually as it tends to float, therefore no grainy butt fiasco! And as always where food colouring is concerned, use sparingly- too much, and you will dye your child a curious shade. (I should know, I did this on placement in a nursery when setting up the water tray- sooo many kids went home, literally red handed!!!)

3) As somone already suggested, Mr. Timer is our friend. He still resides in our bathroom (well,a newer incarnation does, at any rate! Mr Timer #1 expired through immersion.......) to assist with cleaning of teeth and showering!

 

Cal came back from his Dad's tonight, removed his shoes and dang near asphyxiated us all! Even the cactus wilted! He has been wearing the same socks all weekend-AND he had an extra day away! He says they feel nicer........

[niki]

HOORAY! i am not alone! i thought i was parent to alien from planet smellio! i wondered tonight after my son had 1 hour shower could still have greasy hair and b.o!

[hedders]

My dd started with a fear of baths when young to age of 4, then she would only have a shower and insisited one every day.

She has never washed in the sink. NOW she rarely has a shower or wash and won't brush her teeth.

What age do they start refusing i have noticed this happening 6 months ago and she is 8. Her teeth are starting to go yellow, and i keep threatening her with a trip to the denist which she hates going too.

[warrenpenalver]

I used to hate showers because of the water on your head when showering and i especially hated the water on face. Baths were similar when i had to wash hair. Catch 22 as im not a fan of haircuts either Although these days having a haircut is lesser of two evils compared to having long hair. I hated brushing teeth (and still do) and my mummys solution was those plaque pills that make plaque go pink and i wasnt allowed to go to bed till all the pink was gone YUCK!!! cue several standoffs of several hours by the sink