He won’t even eat corn dogs anymore 

The continuing saga of Emmett no longer eating the things he historically has, keeps getting worse. In this latest chapter, he no longer eats his most favorite food of all time.  There have been two goto foods that Emmett has always been able to eat, should all else fail. One is Little Caesars pizza, and second is corn dogs.  Little Caesars pizza has become sorta hit or miss lately but he will still eat it warm. Unfortunately, corn dogs are no longer an option. We went through several the other day and none tasted right.  Emmett's become very difficult to feed because nothing he eats tastes right to him anymore. He only regularly ate a handful of different foods and so losing anything is a major issue.  It's really frustrating…

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Feeding Emmett is getting more challenging 

I wanted to share a quick example of why it's so hard to keep Emmett, my youngest with Autism, fed.  Below you will see a picture of a piece of pizza that Emmett wanted to eat this morning. After heating it up however, he began to panic and ultimately decided that he couldn't eat it because it was missing some cheese at the very tip of the triangular slice.  There is absolutely no way to work through this with him.  I'm so frustrated because he's not eating much of anything, as a result of these sensory issues. I don't have the budget left to survive this right now, but Emmett needs to eat.  It's becoming increasingly more difficult to help him find something he's capable of eating.  Can anyone else…

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Has anyone faced this bizarre #sensory processing issue before? 

Recently, Emmett has been struggling a great deal more with eating. If you've followed our story for awhile, you might recall that we have an enormous challenge when it comes to Emmett and eating. He's extremely sensory oriented and struggles with things like food, clothes, noise and shitload of anxiety. The anxiety serves to make everything worse. Anyway, Emmett has a very small menu of foods he'll eat, and that makes it challenging to feed him. He's very sensitive to things like taste, smell, color, shape, packaging, presentation and imperfections. It's not uncommon for me to have to remake something a few times because something about it wasn't right. Recently, Emmett has begun saying things like, this doesn't taste right. The problem is, what doesn't taste right, happens to be…

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OMG… Just kill me now

We are not off to a good start. Emmett is unable to wear anything on his feet and he's in a mood. He's in a nasty mood.  I didn't sleep much last night cause I was up with Mr. Emmett several times throughout the night.  I'm at my wits end this morning.. 

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Sensory Processing Disorder: Unless you live it, you probably won’t get it

This morning was the stuff of nightmares. It's picture day at school, and both Elliott and Emmett are dressed up, looking quite spiffy. Both were excited about pictures and very much looking forward to going to school. Then it became time for shoes and socks. Emmett went into it with a fantastic can-do attitude, as did Lizze and I. Unfortunately, all the great attitude, positive thoughts and hopeful outlooks in the world, can't seem to counter the nightmare that is sensory processing disorder. We worked with Emmett for almost one hour and forty-five minutes but were unable to work through it. Emmett kept wanting to try different options, but even flip-flops were feeling too funny to tolerate. Poor Emmett was so upset that he was going to miss pictures and…

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#Autism Parenting: Whatever doesn’t kill you….. 

Whatever doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger. If that's true, I should be in really good shape after the morning I've had.  My God... You would think that we were trying to cut his feet off, when all we were trying to do was help him get something on them that would allow him to go to school.  Every time it feels like we've made progress, something always comes along and yanks the rug out from underneath our feet.  The reality is, raising kids on the Autism Spectrum is like living in Ohio and complaining about the weather. If we just wait ten minutes, the weather will change.  In many ways, that's true in regards to parenting a child on the spectrum but not always in the sense that…

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The heartbreaking reality of sensory processing disorder (video) 

I've been talking about sensory issues in regards to my kids for years. The story always seems to revolve around shoes, socks, and school, especially in Emmett's case. Almost every single morning, we spend upwards of an hour or more, trying to help Emmett tolerate his shoes and socks. There are times that we succeed in overcoming these obstacles and there are days in which we don't even come close. The examples I've given have mostly revolved around Emmett missing school because he can't tolerate his shoes and socks. No matter how many times I've tried to explain that Emmett's not trying to get out of going to school, there's always that doubt in people's mind because it seems like getting to stay home is his ultimate goal. As I've…

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Once again, Sensory Processing issues interfere with life

These sensory issues are absolutely killing me as a parent and I'm not even the one having to physically experience them. I can't image what it's like for Emmett.  We tried and tried to help Emmett work through his sensitivity to anything on his feet but we were unable to make it happen this morning.  It's extremely frustrating for Lizze and I as parents because we know that he needs to be at school. It's even more frustrating for Emmett because he wants to be at school but his body is making that very, very difficult for him.  We were somewhat pressed for time this morning because we were already late, Elliott needed to get to school and Gavin needed to have his bloodwork done first thing.  The bottom line…

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