I’ve been working with Emmett on wearing his new pants. It’s not been an easy journey but I will cautiously say that we might be making a baby step forward. ☺

For those new to the party, Emmett is our 9 year old with Autism and significant Sensory Processing issues. Food and clothing are his mortal enemies. Food doesn’t taste, smell, feel or look right and clothes make him itch. This has a profound impact on day to day life, especially when it comes to school. Apparently, the school requires clothes to be worn and there are many days where Emmett simply cannot wear clothes because the hurt.

We recently had what I thought was our first successful shopping trip in regards to finding pants he will wear. He tried them on and was happy.

Unfortunately, things changed when it came time to wear them to school. He completely freaked out and won’t even think about wearing them to school. He needs the new pants because the only pair that he will wear are too small, old and literally falling apart.

For right now, we’ve spoken to the school and he will wear his old pants until we can figure something else out. They’ve told us that he can wear any kind of pants he wants and we still can’t find him something he’s comfortable with.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to work with him on getting used to wearing his new pants. The only way this is even possible is if there’s absolutely no pressure and he can take them off when they get too bad.

Yesterday, he was able to wear his new pair of pants for almost an hour before he came running down the stairs in a panic because he couldn’t stand them anymore.

He looks at that as failing because he took them off. I told him that he’s not a failure at all and that I’m super proud of him because he tried so hard.. ☺

Baby steps, positive reinforcement and a shitload of patience and we just might get there. We’ll see how things go today and maybe we’ll try again.