New Trends

Our son, A, has been benefiting from the brushing technique; he is not hand flapping, spinning, or running back and forth nearly as often (although it does still occur), and is able to focus better on the task at hand. He even takes the brush and tries to do it to himself!

Another trend, not so desirable, is A's tendency to play with himself. He will shove his hands down his pants no matter where we are and just go at it. We were in the grocery store after one of his appointments on Tuesday, and I was in the process of paying the cashier when I looked over and noticed that A had slid in between the end of the check-out conveyor belt and a large stand of fabric grocery bags and he had both hands down the front of his shorts. He was watching me out of the corner of his eye, so when I made eye contact he stopped. Then he tried to slide between the movie rental and one of those claw games where you can "catch" a stuffed toy, and he started to do it again. The frustrating part is, he knows he's not supposed to do things like that in public. He knows. He keeps an eye out for when I notice and will stop every time, most often without my having to say anything. I ignored the distasteful looks of the other patrons, dragged him out to the car, and we went on with our lives.

I know it is somewhat typical for boys to discover their, ahem, toys, but most kids don't have the compulsory issues that A deals with. And it's a compulsion.

Initially, I was like, fine, he's a boy, whatever. If he wants to do that in the bathtub or in his bedroom when he gets up in the morning, whatever. I am regretting that decision, as he does not understand the concept of "appropriate", nor does he understand that he is rubbing himself raw and going to injure himself. It has become one of his favorite stims. He plays with himself whenever the mood strikes (which is multiple times a day). He will even stand in front of our huge picture window that faces the highway with his hands down his pants, working. He would mess around down there 24/7 if he could. (Actually, that may be more typical than I'd like to admit!)

Another more infrequent problem is fecal smearing. He had not engaged in that activity for a couple of years, but that all changed this weekend. A had deposited an exceptionally nasty bowel movement in his pants, but rather than let us know, he hid from us. While we were in the kitchen and mudroom areas, he was in the living room decorating the recliner, the couch, the picture window, the windowsill, the television, the carpet. Ordinarily, I'll let him do what he wants for an hour or so; he had just gotten up from a nap and was clean. He is generally very well behaved, and doesn't destroy anything but paper products (which he ingests), although he does love to empty the soap dispenser in the bathroom. Leaving him to his own devices, alas, was not the choice we should have made in this instance.

Thank God for slipcovers and antibacterial cleaners.