If you ever see a parent with a little one having a melt down, please don’t judge!

As a parent you are met with judgements from everywhere, which also includes other parents. I say this, knowing that I am also a guilty party…I judge when I shouldn’t.

The judgements we face is the lack of pushing we do for one of children. Our little man with autism. You are often met with comments such as if he was hungry he would eat. For most children this is true, but not for a child with sensory aversions and also autism which comes with a lot of sensory issues.

For my little man he can only eat foods that he can fully chew or of a smooth consistency. There is no in between. This even cuts out something as simple as beans on toast. Whilst colours of foods appears to him he can’t stand to touch them let alone put them in his mouth. We can work around this by making him smooth soups…and even resorting to blended up baby food.

The aversions to what goes in his mouth also means that my little man can not take medication.

There are issues with sounds as well, we go around places and be unaware of certain sounds….some we are even completely oblivious to. For example a fan in a bathroom? How many of you would pay attention to this?? This simple noise kept my son awake rocking away with his fingers in his ears. We eventually found out what is was and sorted it. The low hum sound can come from many things, so we are always aware that all places can have this.

Simple things such as the light in a place can trigger a melt down.

Today we tackled something for Oscar, a hair cut which was completed! For a hair cut he is sensitive with the noise, the feel and also the feeling of loss as his hair is going. This has often resorted to melt downs which cause nose bleeds and vomiting. We are so overly proud.

If you ever see a parent with a little one having a melt down, please don’t judge! Think about what could have caused the melt down and realise environmental factors can trigger these. Sensory problems are huge for many children, not just those on the spectrum. Please don’t assume a child friendly place is suitable for those with sensory requires as really, not many are.

For us tackling something we plan, plan and plan. This still can lead to issues but together as a family we tackle this. We try new things, make Oscar aware of different lights, sounds and feel. We try taste but can’t often get there. But each day is a new day, we will conquer the world as he needs. Sensory aversions kick butt but we can kick butt more so.

Pictures to show how well he did.