Clothes Archives - The Autism Dad

I’ve spent the morning murdering tags

It's been awhile since I've had to do this but this morning, Emmett began freaking out about the tag in his winter coat. For some reason, after all this time, he's taken notice of it. After the coat, I was then tasked with removing a tiny tag from the bottom of the shirt he was wearing. This tag never made contact with his skin because of where it was placed but I murdered nonetheless. Emmett was in a weird place this morning and that could be why he was so sensitive to the tags that have never been a problem before. We know he's really sensitive to tags in general so we always buy tagless shirts because they seem to be less problematic. Depending on his current mood, he can…

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March 8, 2018

Clothes / Emmett John / My thoughts / Sensory

I had to tell my son he’s NOT a failure

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…

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February 4, 2018

Clothes / Emmett John / My thoughts / Sensory

Don’t count your blessings before they put their pants on

I'm going to keep this short because I'm already spent and it's not even lunchtime. Unfortunately, this morning didn't quite go as planned when it came to Emmett and his brand new pants. In fact, it went the opposite of who I was hoping it would go. Emmett woke up really early and that doesn't usually bode well for his limited ability to cope with the world around him. I ended on the couch last night because my allergies were really bad and I couldn't stop sneezing. Rather than keep Lizze awake, I moved downstairs. I woke up to Emmett not being dressed for school and already in distress over the fact that he was going to have to wear his new pants. They fit great while at the store…

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January 23, 2018

Clothes / Emmett John / My thoughts / Sensory

Many people will take for granted that their kids wear clothes, but not this #Autism Dad

It's been a roller-coaster day here in The Autism Dad household. We started the say off with a bang or rather an enormous meltdown (see Autism Parenting Confessions: Does anyone else ever feel like giving up but won't?). It's wasn't fun. Poor Emmett couldn't tolerate his clothes and there was nothing we could do. The school pants he would wear are in tatters and we've been unsuccessfully trying to find replacements that he'll tolerate forever. After things settled down a bit, I told Emmett that we would try looking for pants again today. We ended up at Sears, which incidentally is shell of its former self. I'll be honest with you, I didn't have much hope that would find something because even Lizze's Mom has taken him out looking for…

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January 22, 2018

Clothes / Feeding Problems / Inspirational Posts / My thoughts / Sensory

Understanding Sensory Processing Disorder in laymen’s terms

What Is Sensory Processing Disorder? Sensory Processing Disorder is hands down that most frustrating part of being an Autism parent, at least for me. For those unfamiliar with what I'm referring to when I say sensory issues, let me explain. Sensory processing disorder is a condition that is very common in both kids and adults with Autism. What happens is their brains don't properly interpret Sensory input correctly and this can be very problematic for them. Sensory Processing Disorder can impact adults as well. I'm specifically referring to kids because that's where my experience lies. Please don't take that as anything else. Kids with sensory processing disorder are hypersensitive to things like color, sight, sound, light, taste, texture, smells, and especially touch. How these sensitivities impact their lives can and…

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November 4, 2017

Clothes / Emmett John / My thoughts / Sensory

That was a fucking disaster

Nothing with Emmett went well this morning. All of the clothes we had picked out and he pre-approved would work. Shorts were too small or too big. Either the seams or the buttons irritated him. His shorts felt weird and so did his pants. All of these things led to our very first meltdown for the new school year. We were of course late as a result, but he finally was able to work through it but not in a way that met with the dress code. Frankly, I don't care about the dress code anymore. While he made it to school, he came very close to not making it to school and that's got me frazzled. I know he's nervous and that he had a really bad nightmare last…

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August 17, 2017

Autism Parenting Insight / Clothes / Emmett John / My thoughts / Sensory

#Autism Parenting: Some days are worse than others

We had a really challenging day. Rather, Emmett had a very challenging day, and subsequently, so did the rest of us. Any parent would gladly take away their child's burden and shoulder it themselves, but when it comes to Autism, there's no possibility of that. No matter what we do, sometimes we just can't help him. For me personally, this was an emotionally draining day because Emmett was completely out of sorts for most of it. The main issue for the first part of the day was clothing related. He couldn't wear any shirt. There's one shirt that he can wear, and we can't find it. It's got a picture of a pug wearing sunglasses and headphones. It's nowhere to be found. His other shirts are bothering his shoulders. He…

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July 10, 2017

Clothes / Emmett John / My thoughts / Sensory

We’ve gone a full 24 hours

I want to take a minute and say that Emmett has been doing an awesome job for the last twenty-four hours. Towards the end of last week, Emmett was unable to wear a shirt. It's a sensory processing thing, and there wasn't anything I could do to help him. He ended up missing school on Thursday and Friday, as a result of not being able to tolerate a shirt. I'm tentatively excited because Emmett has been wearing a shirt for the last twenty-four hours. I'm hoping this is a sign of things to come, because we could use a good week. There's only two weeks of school left, and I'd like to make the best of it. ☺

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May 14, 2017