I spent many nights worrying over Liam going to school. There were many reasons and fears running through my head:
He's too young.
I didn't get enough time at home with him.
What if he freaks out being left there.
What if he catches a virus.
What if his Gtube got pulled out.
What if he shut down due to over stimulation.
Liam started coming home over stimulated last week. He was fine during class but as soon as I picked him up, he begun to shut down.
Today was no exception. He saw me and at first wasn't ready to go. He wanted to finish singing the song about circles. Of course I wasn't in a hurry so I patiently waited for him to be ready. When he was he walked up to me then immediately shut down. His eyes glossed over and he got a blank stare on his face. At this point he refused to make eye contact with anyone.
He wouldn't say good bye. Wouldn't wave. Wouldn't acknowledge anyone or anything.
He cried the whole way home this afternoon. Luckily we live 5 minutes from his school. Once home he wasn't much better. I had to resort to tactics I used when he was a baby. I laid him on my bed, pitch black, no lights, no noise. After 45 minutes in the dark and a bolus feed, he finally calmed down.
I hated to see him like this. At that moment I wanted to show his teachers what happens every day after school. How he shuts down. They had just stated how he was ready for a traditional preschool. He can't hardly handle two days a week with a day to between the two, there's no way he can handle five days a week.
Today one of his teachers told me that it got pretty loud during one of the activities they were doing and that Liam stuck his fingers in his ears and told them "too loud". I am very proud of him that he is able to communicate verbally and tell us how he feels and what he wants. He's come so far.
I wish he could handle stimulation better. I wish I had a way to help him process better. Baby steps. Slow and steady wins the race.
*note: there will be no pictures of the meltdowns and shutdowns caused by over stimulation. It's too heart breaking and personal to share.
Hi @GMGDiva139 Sadly yes my son Liam does have sensory issues due to all his time in the hospital and his time in NICU after birth. We've had a great team working with him as well as teaching us things we can so to help him. His pedi, bright start teacher, CVRC, physical therapist and specialist have all given us the knowledge to work with him. Thanks to these great people (especially his bright start teacher who never gave up or got frustrated) he's come a long way. He's gone from requiring time in a quiet dark room daily to now where he doesn't get effected as often. I must say he is also handling the sensory over load better than when he was a baby. It's been a hard journey but one day I hope we will be free of this. He still has issues with different food textures as well as taste and brushing his teeth. If things are too loud or there are too many people he tends to overload much quicker.
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