A real blog post for once

This blog will be shifting gears a little for a little while. Hopefully a little while anyway.

i finally had the conference with Charlotte's school director. She said Char doesn't seem to be biting out of the usual reasons kids bite: 1) Teething, 2) Lack of Communication/Frustration, 3) Aggression/Mean-spiritedness. She said that the way she bites is different, so while she is teething, she doesn't bite the way teething toddlers bite. She seems to be getting some sensory satisfaction from it. She (the school director) has a lot of training in Sensory Integration Dysfunction, which is now known as Sensory Processing Disorder, or SPD. She feels that Charlotte shows some signs of sensory processing issues.

Charlotte's prenatal history certainly puts her at increased risk of neurological issues including sensory issues, but plenty of kids (most, in fact) with SPD did not have any prenatal exposures. She could have developed it totally ransdomly, or it could be tied to her exposures.

Something i don't talk about a lot in this blog is that i have a nephew with Asperger's Syndrome, which is a type of high-functioning autism. When he was diagnosed about 6 years ago, i learned a lot about it, as well as sensory issues. i saw a LOT of myself in what i read, and also my brother. i have received confirmation both peer-related and professional that i display the characteristics of high-functioning Asperger's. And i have significant sensory issues. i've outgrown some of them, i've learned to deal with most of them, and i still deal with some of them daily. Some days are worse than others and if anyone even touches me, i want to scream. Those are the hardest days for me as a mom because they tend to correspond to Charlotte's needs to be held and touched. Babywearing is a life-saver on those days!

Anyway, i find it incredibly ironic that of course one of my TTC fears was passing those genes along, as well as my other health issues. i usually joke that i inherited the sludge at the bottom of my gene pool. And here i am with a child who may have some similar issues to mine, who isn't biologically related to me at all but looks so similar strangers comment on how she looks "just like me" everywhere we go. I suppose it's a blessing to her that she has a mom who understands those days she just needs to open the window (even in the middle of winter) and lie under a dozen heavy blankets. Obviously i would rather not have her go through anything adverse, though, especially something i know the pain of.

What next? Well, tomorrow we set up an appointment with her pediatrician for her 15 month vaccines (she's a little behind because she was way behind with the 12 month; oops). We will discuss the biting as a behavior concern and also will ask for a referral to an Occupational Therapist or a Developmental Pediatrician, the 2 types best prepared to make an SPD diagnosis. Future blog entries will discuss things like her current and past symptoms, and how looking back from this new perspective just makes my tendency to over-analyze everything go all haywire ;). i do know some babies are diagnosed as babies younger than Char, so my hope is that if she does have SPD, that it is mild. i will probably also talk about Montessori and SPD, as i'm actually finding interesting blogs and articles about how Maria Montessori's method is very beneficial to kids with sensory processing issues.