The Case of the Quirky Ladybug, newly reopened for investigation, is officially underway now.
Shortly after my earlier post, August contacted a special-needs consultant that he's friends with, while I read up a little on Asperger's. What we found out was intriguing. Well, it's intriguing to us. You're allowed to skip this post if you just can't immerse yourself in the inner workings of someone else's child. ("Doing My Best," who commented on my first post -- you should find this discussion interesting and familiar, as I did your comment.)
This week, I talked with the consultant, Sandra, myself. I positively fell in love with her. She affirmed my concerns about Ladybug, but also let me dismiss some of the quirks as "kid things." She was genuinely interested in helping, and she made me laugh quite a bit. It was a relief to talk with someone who understood what it is like living with a quirky child.
It appears that Ladybug's primary symptoms aren't necessarily Asperger's. They're related more to sensory integration (SI) disorder. (As Sandra said, "All Asperger's children have SI, but not all SI have Asperger's.") I'd read up on SI before, but we revisited it and now can see that Ladybug exhibits the three major qualifications of auditory SI: sensitivity to loud noises, eats primarily carbohydrates, and does not handle transition well.
I was surprised when she asked about Ladybug's diet. "We often call these children 'carbivores,'" Sandra said. What do you know, that's what August and I have called Ladybug for years. It turns out that SI children have too much yeast in their digestive systems, which gives off toxins, affecting their nervous systems. They crave carbs because that's what the yeast thrives on.
Secondly, their carbohydrate diet contains too little fat. Evidently, it's fat that forms a sheath around our nerves, buffering us from noises, shocks, and the world in general. SI children don't have that buffer, so everything hits their system as intense and jarring. Ladybug is actually fortunate that her only problem is auditory sensitivity; other children have trouble with everything from the feel of socks to food textures.
The first steps we've taken are to change what Ladybug eats. This week I've served her meat and vegetables, and considerably fewer carbohydrates. Is this easy for a mother who builds her meals around rice, potatoes, or pasta? (Everybody: Noooo.) She hasn't surfaced from her books long enough to pay attention to the change in diet, so it's going easily on her part. Plus, I sprinkle acidophilus powder on her food (to counteract the yeast). You can imagine how delighted she is to have to take vitamins for her frail constitution. This is Lady "Am I Pale" Bug, after all. Next week we'll add fish oil, which helps the nervous system. Did you know that fish oil comes in flavors now? Did you know that you can get cod liver oil in strawberry? Doesn't that sound like a bad joke?
Sandra remarked (as did the commentor on my first post) that it's astonishing what accomodations you make without thinking about it. One boy, she said, would wears socks as long as his parents cut the toes out of them. "They didn't think much about it. As if it's a perfectly normal thing to cut the toes out of socks." So she asked them if their son had problems with the food touching each other. "Oh, that's not even an issue," the dad replied. "We buy divided plates." We laughed, because a moment before, I'd said, "Ladybug is our least picky eater," and Sandra replied, "Except that she won't eat meat." Right. Except for the exclusion of an entire food group.
It's too soon to tell if these relatively simple steps will make any dramatic changes, but I can't help thinking she's been a little more even-keeled, and less prone to disappear into her room because "everything was too crowded." If she does indeed show improvement, then we can discuss therapy, or explore if SI is the extent of her troubles. As it is, I'm absolutely ecstatic that I've found some way to help her, and that I also understand why she reacts the way she does.
More bulletins as events warrant.
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11 comments:
Wow! That's great that you were able to get some helpful information! Mine obviously has sensory issues, and, although I hadn't heard it explained in the way you explained it (your way made so much sense!), I have been giving him acidophilus and fish oil too (incidentally, I tried out the strawberry flavored oil on two of my other kids and they really liked it!). I'm not sure what to do about the carbs; he would literally eat a loaf of bread every day if I would let him--I do make the bread myself, so it has mostly whole wheat flour and oat flour in it, but still! Since he has such issues with food, I just don't know how to get him to eat any differently; he involuntarily throws up when something in his food bothers him. The only fruit he'll eat is apples...IF I cut the "veins" out of the slices (who knew apples had veins?). The only vegetable he'll eat is baby carrots...sometimes. If you hear any helpful tips on how to change the diet of a picky eater, I'd love to hear them =). I'm glad things look so hopeful for your little Ladybug!!
Oh, for the loud noises problem: we ended up buying "earmuffs" (what others might call hearing protection...those earmuff looking things a person would wear while using loud machinery, I'm pretty sure they came from the local home improvement store) and he is now in the habit of putting those on whenver loud noises are bothering him (the vacuum, screaming siblings, etc.). We try to keep a pair in the car so that when we go somewhere, like a restaurant, where the noise/people bother him, he can just put his "earmuffs" on and then he's fine. Again, it seems so normal to me, but I'm sure a person without a quirky child is thinking, "Earmuffs?" =) But it made a WORLD of difference for us!
Wow, how exciting for you to find someone who totally gets your kid and the way you've been living. I hope these changes you've already made let you see fast improvement and comfort to LadyBug.
This is SO INTERESTING. I read EVERY WORD with CAPITALIZED INTEREST.
Rob had a lot of problems with loud noises, textures, etc., as a toddler, when he also didn't like meat. We've been thinking he "grew out of" his problems--but he eats meat now. I wonder if those things are connected? We found he liked meat better if it was seasoned, like taco meat.
Also, it is adorable that she loves to take vitamins for her frail constitution.
ALSO-also (I am sorry, I cannot seem to stop), I was thinking about all the accommodations we used to make for Rob that didn't seem like accommodations at the time. We had long, detailed rituals for EVERYTHING.
I suppose we don't notice in part because children are such foreign little creatures ANYWAY. We're already doing things we didn't do before children: buying rubber duckies, filling the house with toys, buying bedding with cute designs, mashing up food. The other things seem to fall into the same category.
It never ceases to amaze me that things that seems so simple, such as changes in diet, can have profound changes in people.
I sincerely hope that Ladybug is able to get on board with these changes. They may seem simple to me, but I bet they are GIANT SCARY CHANGES to her.
Please do keep us posted. I'm anxious to hear how things progress.
I'm so glad you're getting some answers (and solutions) to Ladybug's issues. I'm really interested to see how the diet changes work.
This is extremely interesting to me. I have a nephew who has been diagnosed with ADHD and his parents are doing a lot with his diet, including fish oil (or maybe cod liver oil? can't remember.) Anyways, it's seeming to help, so good luck to you with your diet changes!
I sometimes worry that Addy has some kind of "issue." She doesn't seem bothered by noises at all, but she is VERY bothered by random little things, like my putting her coat on for her instead of letting her do it. Or like the other day when I took her pants off, she threw a fit for five minutes, desperately trying to put the pants back on. I finally helped her back into them, only to have her take them off ever so tediously by herself.
Now that I'm thinking about it, a lot of her issues seem related to my doing things instead of letting her do them her own way. Is this more just normal toddler stuff, do you think?
DHousewife: That sounds like toddler things more than sensory issues. You've got a little girl who knows what she wants -- and it doesn't include Mama doing it for her! You'll see her grow up and do great things... if you don't lose your mind before then. :)
Best: If you want to email me, I'm glad to compare and share in more detail what we're doing for our kids.
Swistle: I know, when it's your firstborn who's quirky, you're already doing so many unprecedented things that a few more strange rituals don't signify. It wasn't until Titan came along that I realized that I wasn't a Bad Mother for not playing with my child, because Ladybug wouldn't play with me. I wasn't a Bad Mother for letting her watch videos all the time, because that's what kept her focus. Now the third time around, I'm shedding first-mama guilt like an outgrown skin.
Who KNEW that diet had so much to do with behavior? (Maybe the rest of the 'good mothers' in the group did, but I had no clue.) My eldest eats mostly carbs and eschews meat of any sort (along with beans. Getting protein into that kid is a challenge). Frankly, he lives on plain pasta and breakfast cereal.
This is all kind of moot as he really doesn't have any 'quirks' to speak of. I am just interested in how you are getting Ladybug interested in this new diet.
Misty: Ironically, it isn't hard to get Ladybug to eat things. She isn't very picky. It's just that if given the choice, she'll ignore meat and load up on potatoes. For a long time now, we've let her do just that. Titan is the awful one: like Best's son mentioned above, he actually will throw up if he doesn't like a food. His problems are more pickiness than sensory, though. My mother says I deserve him.
Ladybug loves gravy and ketchup. So chicken in gravy and hamburger patties in ketchup worked great. Lunchmeat turkey sandwiches, though, were not a hit at all. Swistle said that her son liked his meat seasoned. My own children love sausage and bacon and pork chops.
Really, I have it pretty easy: so far it's just a matter of setting the right foods in front of her. Her SI must be very mild, if she presents so little difficulty about food. Heaven forbid I ever have to tinker with Titan's diet!
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