My Twice Baked Potato

If you are a regular reader, my TBP’s sensory issues are well-known to you.  The stories of leaving restaurants because of strong smells. Quickly exiting movies because of the loudness. Tantrums with various doctor and dentist appointments.  You have read them all!

Your suggestions and support have been so powerful that I am going to share with you two little secrets!  Secrets that I didn’t know would make such a difference until I saw the results for myself.  Drum roll please…

The Tooth Tunes toothbrush and the Dum Dum sucker!

Clearly, these are not my inventions and I’m not getting paid to promote either of them but they have helped me out of recent sticky situations.

First, the  toothbrush…

Like many eight years old boys, mine has different sized teeth coming out of all different places.  He has an adult tooth trying to push past a stubborn baby tooth. Most of the time, he looks like a jack-o-lantern.  He often complains about his gums and teeth and tries to avoid brushing them well because of the uncomfortable sensations.

I tried to brush his teeth and it didn’t go well for either of us.  I tried to monitor the brushing at bedtime and he would try to fake the amount of time he actually did it.  I actually thought the new little tooth was slightly brown and I started to worry.  If this kid doesn’t like a cleaning, he really isn’t going to like having a rotting tooth extracted!

Santa was wiser than me and included a Tooth Tunes toothbrush in his stocking.  Initially, the present was not received well; however, my son’s black and white, rule following ways have finally paid off!

The song is What Makes You Beautiful.  When I listen on the other side of the door, I hear the spinning start and then the song begins. It’s catchy and perfect!

He explains to me how it helps him stay focused and he knows that he can’t stop until the song is over. In a few short weeks, I have seen a turn around in his smile and he sees it too! Now that I think about it, I better buy a few extras because those batteries won’t last forever!

Now, for the Dum Dum.

My son hates to get his haircut.  He hates the sounds of the trimmers and the way his neck feels with little hairs all over it.  Once the little hairs start to fall into his shirt, it is over.  We have tried going when the shop first opens so it won’t be crowded.  We have tried bringing extra shirts.  We even tried doing it at home; this made for a bigger mess and more stress because it took so much longer than a professional doing the cutting.

Yesterday, we were determined to get a haircut.  We brought a fully charged iPad and walked into the nearly empty salon.  Perfect timing, or so we thought.

My TBP had almost reached a level in his game and wanted to finish it.  He was afraid that moving from the waiting area to the chair would break his focus.  He wouldn’t move.  We tried to coax him.  We tried to ignore the glares. We were embarrassed and felt powerless so we did something that never goes well, we took the iPad.

It went as poorly as you can imagine and we left without accomplishing our goal.

We went to the car.  We all needed a moment or two.  After listening to each other, we decided to give it another try.  It’s always hard to go back in, but we did.

This time, he had an addition to his tool belt of strategies.  As he played his iPad, he also sucked on a Dum Dum sucker that we grabbed from the glove compartment in desperation.

Why a Dum Dum?  We don’t love extra sugar for my TBP but this tiny treat was just enough to keep his taste buds involved and get him through this short, but uncomfortable task.

If you have a kid with sensory issues, you should be thanking me right now!  Let me know if you try these new favorite things and if they help!