Pain threshold

[Lindyloo]

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of their AS kids having a higher pain thresholds than normal.

 

I am asking this because on Sunday evening Luke fell off a roundabout and fractured his elbow. We were in A&E for 5 hours before he had temporary cast put on, and after going back to the fracture clinic yesterday, they have said that it is a particularly nasty break (the bone has displaced and is crossing over the one next to it) They wanted to wait for an elbow specialist to correct it under anethsetic, either by manipulating it back in to place or operating on it, so we now have to wait until Friday.

 

The reason for my question is that we have been absolutely staggered by how brave Luke has been through all this. Luke has a diagnisis of ADHD, and is believed to also have Aspergers, but has yet to be disgnosed for that. If he cuts himself, he will usually totally freak out, particularly if there is any blood. But during all of this he has stayed very calm and heardly made any fuss. Even during the time in A&E in Sunday the only time he reacted was when they had to move his arm - then he just screamed. As soon as they stopped - he was fine again.

 

Having seen the extent of the injury it must really hurt him. But even now, he only cries out when he knocks ot or moves it too much. It just made me wonder if it is possible that his pain thresholds are higher than those of NT kids.

 

Any experience / opinions would be very welcome.

 

Thanks,

Linda

[board]

hello i would say yes becouse my son when he was about 4 he fell off a chair and hurt his arm but he just caried on playing two days later he kept holding his arm so we took him to the hospital he had broken it in 2 places avery bad we told them when he done it and they saidhe could have not he would have been in to much pain we are in the midle of haveing him dx for adhd i got a dd 6 with aspergers all the best jill

[marshmallow]

Sounds just like my DS. Doesn't seem to notice/mind pain as such , but as soon as even a speck of blood is involved he absolutely freaks and is very difficult to calm or reassure. Hope the elbow heals soon <'>

[LizK]

Yes my four year old has a high pain threshold. I remember 28mths ago he burned his finger on a hot lightbulb and skinned it and I didn't realise unti 15mins later when he started whimpering. He can often fall over and take quite a tumble and just get on with it. Also though I think he feels pain but doesn't verbalise it either because he doesn't know how and doesn't realise he can! He fell over in the playgroud at school last week and grazed his knee, seemed to be fine so the teacher left him alone but his LSA could see he was looking forlorn and when she went over to him and asked if he was ok he burst into floods of tears and flung himself in her arms!

 

I think the perception of pain is all part of the sensory issues with ASD. I think some children are hypersensitive to pain and others hyposensitive. It worries me as I worry about him getting appendicitis and him not telling me until it's much more severe

 

Lx

[av16]

I would agree with what you have all said. My son (9) AS, went skating with his sister & her friends, they whinged about their skates being uncomfortable all afternoon & I spent ages going back & getting them fitted with new ones. Son on the ice for 2 1/2 hours solid - no complaints but when he took his boots off he had 2 large blisters on each shin, the scars were with him for 6 months but he had not made 1 complaint.

 

Show him a speck of blood though and he goes to pieces. I agree it's very worrying that they don't acknowledge pain. I think it has contributed to mine getting in to more trouble at school, he isn't bothered if he's kicked hard so he can't understand it when he does it back & other kids scream & cry!

[lil_me]

Hiya, there has been many posts on the forum about extremely high pain thresholds in several children with ASDs. My son can show very high most of the time, especially when he was younger, but with some things he can be a complete wimp., especially if he sees the blood he freaks out.

Edited June 14, 2006 by lil_me

[forbsay]

I would say "yes" as well

[jools]

G is not dx but has a high pain threshold.

[lindy-lou]

Hi linda,sorry to hear your son has hurt himself <'> we have the opposite problem in that India is hypersensitive to pain,and will act like she has a broken leg if she has merely scraped her knee.

[Karen A]

Hi ,I have not got personal experience but know there are lots of records in ASD literature of children having painful conditions such as appendicitis and carers not realising because the child does not show they are experiencing pain.

[Guest flutter]

yes, but in response to lindy the slightest wee thing can need plaster or be painful but broken arm or bad women pain she dont feel ?

Cx

[lindy-lou]

Im not sure to be honest flutter,she is really poorly at the moment and is crying with the pain in her tummy so i think she feels all pain,either normally or hypersensitively,im on the verge of taking her to casualty as she has seemed in such pain this morning,thing is i dont know wether she really is or is it just something minor that she feels more??we have a docs appointment this evening so hopefully they will know.

[Lynden]

Logan seems to have a high pain threshold - especially concerning bumps to the head. Being a toddler he has a bad habit of going under tables to get things and standing up and some of the knocks he gets are really hard and he just rubs his head and gets on with it. He does head bang a lot too though. He reacts to the slightest of gentle touches though.

 

Lynne x

[smiley]

Hi

 

My son has differing reactions to pain. If he is ill - it can be very difficult to tell (many, many trips to GP only to find out he has tonsillitis, ear infections in both ears, etc.....). He also walked around on a badly broken leg at 18 months . But, if he bangs himself, he becomes hysterical - and sometimes passes out.

[justamom]

About 6weeks ago Keegan broke his arm, he came in crying saying it was painful but after hubby put ice on it and bandaged it he was ok, still rode his bike - turns out it was broken and he only reacted about 5hrs later..... His pain threshold is very high!!!

[Teaorcoffee]

I would say my pain threshold is pretty much like an NT person's threshold.

[karin]

yes i would say so too my 2 often sit by the fire with their backs to it on full blast without noticing how hot it really is,it doesn't seem to bother them where as it would u or i,when twin1 was bout 2 he was playing in the garden an got a big spade to dig with he came in whimpering for about 1/2 an hour then took his shoe off we noticed blood turns out he had nearly cut his toe in half but the whole nail was hanging off this did not seem to bother him so in answer to your question yes i would say our children have a higher threshold of pain than most nt kids keep smilin luv karin

[KarenT]

Hi linda,sorry to hear your son has hurt himself <'> we have the opposite problem in that India is hypersensitive to pain,and will act like she has a broken leg if she has merely scraped her knee.

Same here.

 

I'm sure I read somewhere that the real issue with pain response in ASD is that it is dysfunctional, so it could by hyper or hyposensitivity. It just seems that most don't feel pain as people generally do. It's one of the arguments for opioid excess theory as well, the body being permanently anaesthetised.

 

Karen

x

[aro]

"I" doesn't seem to feel pain except on her head, as a baby she never liked her head (or arms) being touched, any slight bump on her head has her screaming, yet the rest of her body barely gets a reaction!

[loulou]

Hi,

 

Kai is the same, especially with the blood thing. As soon as the plaster is on, the screaming stops.

 

He must have a very high pain threshold, as when he was 2 1/2, he had a tumor in his tummy the size of a grapefruit which his bowel was stuck to and became twisted. The doctors didn't realise how sick he was b/c he was still walking around. Two days after major surgery he got out of his bed, pulling his drips out and walked up the ward to find the play room .

 

Loulou x

[Bullet]

With Ds1 if he just bangs himself he'll carry on with no trouble, even if the knock was quite hard. He only really kicks off if he's taken a fall and been shocked by it.

With myself it's not that my pain level is high, it's probably quite low thinking about it, but I do have a lot of difficulties expressing how I feel and whether something is upsetting me in the outside world. I wanted to say, for example, that I needed some stronger pain relief than gas and air when I was in labour with Ds2, but I couldn't make the thoughts in my head become the words from my mouth. Everyone was saying how well I was doing but I was going to pieces because I couldn't ask for what I wanted. So people would think I was coping well when in reality I wouldn't be.

[Lindyloo]

Thank you so much for all your replys. THis really is very enlightening.

 

Having seen the x-rays, we really could not understand how he was managing to stay so calm and quiet about it. It may also explain why the doctor on Sunday decided it was only a minor bone flake. He was possibly judging the extent of the injury by Luke's reaction.

 

Oh well - we will just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

 

Thanks again.

Linda

Edited June 15, 2006 by Lindyloo

[TheNeil]

Hmmm, maybe

 

I'm forever bumping my head just kind of ignore and can similarly tear nails off (usually ending up with blood everywhere) and not bat an eyelid. But if someone pulls my arm behind my back or I stub my toe then it's absolute agony and I squirm and whine like a baby

 

Maybe it's got something to do with what I'm doing at the time (nail pulls usually happen when I'm either stressed or plugged into a computer) so my mind is kind of distracted

 

Despite being a complete klutz though I've never actually broken anything

[Zemanski]

There was a thread on hunger and the root cause is similar - people on the spectrum do not always feel the sensory messages from their bodies effectively. This is usually to do with the proprioceptor sensory system and it will affect the sense of pain, hunger, thirst, tiredness, temperature, the need to go to the loo, etc

 

Com broke his arm a year ago. It was badly bruised but he didn't seem too bothered so I didn't think too much of it. That was at the beginning of half term.

When he went back to school he started to complain a bit that his arm hurt and knowing he doesn't feel pain very well, I realised it must be worse than I'd thought.

 

It took me 10 days to get him to A&E, fortunately it had set straight on its own.

 

Now I take him if he tells me something hurts more than once!

 

It's also possible to have a heightened sense of pain if the sensory system is hypersensitive and also to have heightened awareness of some messages but lower awareness of others.

 

Sensory overload can also have an impact. I had a case once where a child was accusing staff of hurting him and it happened in 3 different settings. It turned out that under stress (particularly in meltdown) his sense of pain becomes so heightened that even a light touch hurts him where generally he needs firm touch to respond at all. Caused all sorts of problems before we realised what was happening.

 

Zemanski

 

just edited because I put vestibular instead of proprioceptor

Edited June 16, 2006 by Zemanski

[Flora]

I can never work out the pain response of either of my boys. William loves to be hugged very hard but can't bear being touched lightly or near his head, he recoils as if in agony. Luke is the opposite, gentle scratching or tickling on his back he loves but he can't stand being bear hugged it makes him very irritable.

 

Lauren

[Bullet]

I'm similar regarding touch to your William Lauren. The thing is, is that my skin is very sensitive and depending on how I feel can either feel just very ticklish or quite painful (the more ill I am or stressed the worst it gets). But a big hug doesn't make me feel like that so I prefer it.

[lisann]

Hi hope your son's arm is better soon <'>

Char has a very high pain threashold but spot blood and he is off on a screaming ab-dab.He lituraly can fall and give himself a huge bump on the head get nipped and he even got a black eye the other day at school and not flinch.Infact the teacher says he just doen't bother he just carries on and is quiet proud to show his battle wounds

 

Lisa x

[karin]

zemanski thank you so much for explaining this to us i have been trying to find out why my twins are like the way they are its difficult to get people to understand why they dont feel hungry and why we need to constantly feed them people or specialists think there is something wrong with us and look at us funny when we try to describe this to them what is the propricocetor sensory system? do we have a thread on this once again thanks you have cheered me up no end now i know why my children are like the way they are,although twin1 stlll insists in visiting the toilet 6 times before he leaves for school i think it is just him being stressed or is it? keep smilin luv karin

[jb1964]

Hi,

 

My daughter is very sensitive on the scalp and arms - the lightest touch she will say you've hit her. After reading this I would definitely agree that these sensitivities are heightened when she's anxious/stressed/upset etc.

 

Although as you say - other illnesses/broken bones etc - they cope with. My daughter hasn't broken anything - but when she was only 7mths old - she had a cold which developed into her breathing becoming very laboured and she lay very quiet (which was totally unusual for her because she never slept yet alone led quiet). We took her to the hospital who admitted her because she was severely dehydrated and the blood tests they did whilst in A & E showed up that she had some sort of infection. She was too ill to move to the Xray dept so they brought the portable one to the ward - during the time waiting for the equipment to come up they started her on a drip - and within 10 mins of receiving fluids was sat up playing normally. The Paed. couldn't believe the change in her and we all felt awful when the xray gentleman came up. However, within 1/2 hour the Paed. came back to say that the xray actually showed that her whole left lung had collapsed and she had a serious case of pnemonia - yet here was our little baby sat up playing as though nothing was wrong - the hospital staff said that unless they'd seen it with their own eyes they couldn't believe that a child so ill would present like that.

 

It does make you so aware that they could be seriously ill and it could be missed...

 

Take care,

Jb

[Zemanski]

the proprioceptor sense tells you where your body is in space, how your body is feeling and working.

 

Dot has serious proprioceptor problems which are mostly physical and linked with dyspraxia - she finds it difficult to feel her body, to feel movement and needed holding 24/7 as a baby

 

Com has problems too but his are more about feeling his own internal signals.

 

Olga Bogdashina's book on sensory perception on the autistic spectrum is the best book I've read on this(not the right title but there is a thread in the resources topics and you could do a search for her or for sensory issues - button at top right of page)

 

Zemanski

[Guest flutter]

Z

i am taking the same theory with dd if she says i want to go to docs then i know she is in lots of pain. THis is how we found broken wrist she called from bus and said i want to go hospital