Sensory Question- Clothes? | Autism PDD

Hi everyone,

I've only posted a couple of times, but I wanted to ask a question that probably has been answered a million times. How many times a day does your child change clothes? DD is 2 weeks away from 4 and I swear, the clothing issue has become NUTS in my house. She will change clothes 10 times in a day. Keep in mind, nothing matches and is completely out of season. I put all the winter stuff away so she couldn't get to the sweatpants (99 degrees yesterday) and long sleeves are away. She seems to want to stay covered. She doesn't want shorts on and sometimes her preference is only about the pictures or the color of the article of clothing. I am a clothes horse, so I really want my kids to look cute - I have learned to just allow her to have her way - it's not worth the fight.

Anyway, I just wondered if this was an issue for everyone. Other moms have told me that they see the same thing with their asd child, but some have not encountered this . If she get her clothes wet, just a drop, she has to change. If she doesn't agree with what you choose, you can expect a full-on meltdown. The last 2 weeks of school in May were the death of me. Every morning was a fight. I'm just not sure how to handle this when we start school again in August. Laying clothes out at night really doesn't help, because she doesn't transfer to "tomorrow" or "after night-night". For her, it's a control thing. She wants to do the choosing. Anyone deal with the same thing. I'm just dreading school if we don't find a compromise that is routine to her. Any advise is greatly appreciated.

We go through the exact same thing. If something gets wet you can expect TOTAL Nuclear meltdown over it. We also have a clothing 'theme' thing. For the last while now, he's been Harry Potter. I tried one time to throw the costume cape thing away that he wears, and he -freaked-. I pick my battles too, and that one just isn't important, y'know? He has a weird thing about denim too. He -hates- jeans or jean jackets and totally refuses to wear them for ANY reason.

im in the same boat as horanimals.. my son hates clothes. it is a fight every morning to get dressed and he will run around in his underwear until we have to go somewhere. shoes and socks are the worst!! i will put them on and i turn around and he has pulled them off. back on again get in the van and he pulls them off again. i got so tired of it i went and bought him flip flops took 3 days of trying to get him to put them on and try them on. finally i put them in his bed and he played with them for about 5 min and came to me with them on YEA!!

our biggest battle is going from season to season when it got warm here and we went from long sleved pj's he cried which turned into a meltdown cuz he kept pulling at his sleves trying to make them long he could not understand. i finally put a long sleve shirt on him . and it took about 2 weeks till we got into short sleve shirts. alot of weird looks when we went out.

Maybe you could try giving her a choice or 2 or 3 outfits? This works (usually) with my NT 6 y/o. Not that I still don't have a meltdown every now and then, but I usually let him choose shorts or pants and I lay out 2 shirts every nite, and tell him he can pick the one he wants to wear in the morning.

Ha! I can't get get my son to wear clothes at home...he strips down the minute we walk in...sometimes if there's company I can get him to put on shorts...but the majority of time, he's Captain Underpants...been like this for 5 years! (as soon as he figured out how to undress by himself.)
~Lesley

horanimals38519.5946759259

I don't know if I have answers, but I am living it!

Renee

Suzanne,

You know what?? My NT daugter did this!! She continued to keep a mess of clothes in her room and drawers were always pulled out and she would put on clothes that didn't match, or were for the wrong season, and she would change clothes constantly ALL DAY LONG!! LOL LOL She did it until she was almost 6. OH i remember what a pain in the butt this was!! Now adam (pdd-nos) is 3 and he will only wear ONE outfit at home and that is his spiderman pajamas!! I can get him dressed ONLY if we are going bye bye. This makes it hard for washing. I have to throw it in the washer while he is in the bath tub and keep adding warm water until it is out of the dryer!! LOL

karrie

Tyler stripped down when he was 3ish maybe between 2 and 4. He went through the changing 101 times a day if things got on him a drip of water when washing his hands anything! Then he went through the stage of only wearing specific clothes 1 year it was always wearing his red pokemon ASH vest and insisting he be called ASH another time was wearing only sweat pants and entire year (no shorts, jeans, or dress clothes) Then he went through having to wear a red clip on tie because he was DONKEY KONG! Each year or season was something. TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THIS WAS NOT ABOUT CONTROL he believed he was these characters he had serious aggressive/self-injurious MELTDOWNS over wearing these clothes! By the time we reached kindergarten he would only wear blue overalls with a red t shirt he had to also have his red hat and INSISTED his name was MARIO! I tried seeing what would happen if we didnt have overalls but jeans instead THAT was AWFUL to say the least. I also tried to buy green tshirt and green hat to have him occassionally be LUIGI but he had meltdowns over that as well. The following year was Orange pants and orange shirts,.... We're talking entired kindergarten year 7 dyas a week being in overalls and a red shirt Mario Style and the entire first grade year 7 days a week being all orange to be none other than GOKU from Dragonaball Z! (I HATE THE COLOR ORANGE

I try to see it as some imaginative play although it really isnt ........... But I figure PICK MY BATTLES,...... I'd rather have him wear the same clothes everyday and go to school than to insist he wear something else and him miss going to school be aggressive and self injurious not learn and not get or stay dressed!

Sometimes I think the clothes are because they resist change and need predictability. I also think its what gives them some security in their messed up world. I always try to remind myself when things seem bad,......... it COULD be worse.

MsSteelersFan38519.4524074074OK - I feel a little better. It drives me insane, but it could be worse. I guess the long sleeves and pants aren't such a terrible thing in the dead of summer. It keeps her from being sunburned and helps with the mosquito bites. She is also a "scratcher" and a "picker", which I consider a self-mutilation problem. If nothing else, it keeps her mind off of insect bites. It is so COMPLEX and crazy at times, it's a wonder we even ever leave the house to go anywhere. Good news - the swimsuit is acceptable and she wears it at the appropriate time. We're not swimming in pants and shirts, well, not this summer anyway. Thanks to all of you for the information. Oh Cyndie - I know exactly what you mean with the change of seasons...trying to get him NOT to wear a "Chicago Winter" coat once it hits 60+ degrees out!!! I think he wore his knit hat till the end of May this year!!! And the same thing going from shorts to pants! And I can never get him to wear long sleeves though...no matter what the weather! So even if it's 40-below out, he's in short sleeves! (yeah - I think people think we're nuts too!)My NT daughter did it too, in fact she still changes clothes a couple of times a day and she's 12! My boys prefer to be naked, and will strip whenever they can. My son doesn't have this issue (though he loves when I remove his diaper and will go running through the house like the streaker if I allow him!), but he's only 2. Things could change.

Actually, his sensory problems (the tactile ones anyway) seem to be improving quite a bit of late. He used to not allow us to hold his hands or touch his feet or wash his face and neck ... these are no longer issues. Now if only we could get him to stop mouthing everything, spinning things, and bouncing like Tigger he'd almost be NT!