My non verbal child won’t wear a winter coat

[Hellbelle]

Hi I’m just looking for some advice on how I can get my 3 year old non verbal child to wear a winter coat ? My daughter will only wear a yellow Peppa pig rain coat and with winter coming in with temperatures dropping would like her to wear something heavier . She has loads of new coats and refuses to wear any of them . Any advice would be appreciated . Thanks in advance .

A thick bodywarmer or fleece beneath the raincoat?

Are they actually cold, or is it you think they need something warmer?

Put it over a thinner coat

I have tried to put a fleece underneath but she refuses that also . She won’t be too cold at the moment I guess but it will be getting really cold soon . I would hate for her to be cold in the winter months and she tends to catch a lot of colds as well with being at nursery .

Can you get an identical but thicker coat?

Either layers under it or a winter coat in a larger size that goes over the top of the rain coat. maybe?

tried to find one but no luck .

Could you get it in a bigger size and slip a fleece inside it before she puts it on that way it might not feel as tight?

Let her be cold? DD1 wouldn't wear coats for a long time and even now at 18 it has to be really cold before she's willing to.

Thanks for advice . My daughter is very stubborn and takes a melt down as well if she feels any change . I did try while she was distracted to put a thin fleece under the peppa pig coat but didn’t get work 🤦‍♀️

No real advice but just wanted to say my asd son went through exactly the same thing at that age. I just put him in the thickest jumpers possible.
He's 9 now and happily worn a coat for a few years.
It's a worry but honestly she'll be fine and grow out of it.

Will she wear a long sleeved thermal vest under her clothes? Even a sleeveless vest would help keep her core warm.
https://www.marksandspencer.com/2pk-thermal-cotton-blend-vests-2-14-yrs-/p/clp60559041?color=WHITE&extid=ps_ps-pla-pmax_ggl_kw_ch__-UK-_-_bau&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI67DL76zHiAMV9JRQBh3CswF0EAQYBSABEgIuC_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I'm also a coat stand op. The coat looks brand new because it's been on twice for less than a minute a time. Dd will never wear her coat. Dd finds coats too tight with a jumper on even though there's plenty room. she's very sensory.

I still can't get my 13yo twins to wear a coat. I'd take the coats with me but they were never worn.

I've had an almost lifelong battle with DS2 over this. He also refuses to layer up, so in summer he wears a short sleeved t-shirt and in winter he wears a thicker long sleeved t-shirt. Only at 18 have we had success with padded and unpadded versions of otherwise identical Columbia overhead jackets. He has a jacket that he specifically wears at school but it lives in his bag most of the time, even on the way to and from school.

If you can layer her up, try that. Try scarves if she's willing. If that fails, I have plenty of tea and sympathy.

I have a highly sensory DS but luckily he was old enough to understand a short period of trial of a difficult item when we had to go into this.
He balked at suncream when he was nonverbal and we did this with a stronger massage at the same time and made it into a routine, he liked the strong massage.
I would potentially try putting it on her and counting down from 10 with your fingers (or enlist a helper to do the counting) and at the end she gets to take it off/gets a chocolate button/gets some cartoon time.
You may need to wrestle the first couple of times but honestly you'd be putting it on her/wrestling with a 1 year old anyway.
Build up so it's 20 and 30 and then 1 minute on a clock (maybe a sand timer or something you can see run down the time).
I find that past the 5 minute stage they no longer feel the immediate shock of a new sensation. I caught my DS wearing his riding helmet to watch TV in once, as I'd left him to wear it for 5 minutes while watching, went out of the room, and half an hour later he was still wearing it.

Yes I can empathise! We did layers, luckily my son likes a thick hoodie .

If I was worried I took a coat along just in case.

I wonder if he feels temp differently?

We learnt that colour can make a difference as well as texture. Brownie points if we can find something related to his specific interests.

We have the issue of shoes! He lives in crocs

Is she actually cold?
Wait until she is then produce a different coat or a fleece to go under.
One of my DC was like this every winter. Then when he'd agreed to wear a coat, it would be hard to get him out of it in Spring/summer.
A good base layer might keep her warm enough.
And it's not cold yet, and I only wore my winter coat a couple of times last year - it just wasn't cold enough.

I find the opposite, I have to insist on coats (even if not that cold) and suncream (even if we aren't going out much) almost every day in winter/summer or DS isn't accustomed enough to them. He is MUCH more likely to use the sensory-horrible thing if he's done it every day than as a one off, even if he's freezing.

We've been through the same thing. Body warmers, coats a size or two too big. Putting her in long sleeved vests and long johns under her clothes. Just letting her get on with it. Ugh. It's hard.

DD just didn't get cold at that age (she's definitely verbal). She had to wear a coat when on the back of my bike, but would take it off as soon as we got to the park, because otherwise she was too hot. I tried to remember to put her in long sleeves, else I got 'interesting' looks in December. I remember someone saying they had to wear a coat when their mum felt cold - your DD may well be OK.

Leave her. It’s not worth the battle.

both of mine “run hot” and never really had winter coats. Fleeces, waterproof jackets, but they’d never wear anything really warm. People would comment- they learned to reply “my mum’s a northerner” to shut them up 😂

i don’t own a winter coat either. Never have. Just don’t need one. Oh I do have a floor length proper coat I bought in about 1998 but have worn about twice. I’d forgotten about it tbh.

DS has ADHD and SPD. At that age, he did not wear coats. or jumpers. Or raincoats. We were the family wandering around with a child wearing trainers (no boots, obviously), light trousers or trackies, and a long sleeved t-shirt. I got some looks. But we always had the coat with his us.

As he got slightly older, we found as long as any coats we bought him were relatively thin and super super flexible, he would wear them... but only over a single (thin) layer. So he had puffa style jackets from places like Mountain Warehouse or Trespass. not as warm as some of the coats the other children were wearing, but good.

Somewhat amusingly, he is now 13. Him and DH went camping last weekend. it was FREEZING. Dh couldn't get warm, woke up a few times... DS slept like a log, super happy and comfortable. He just genuinely doesn't feel the cold the way the rest of us do. In retrospect, I often wonder whether if we'd just thrown him into his cot with a nappy and a t-shirt whether we would have had a lot fewer sleep problems!

My kids (and DH) never wear coats, it's a pain but what can you do? When they were younger I always carried their coat to wave at the people who tutted and said "ooh aren't they cold?" and always took it to nursery and school but other than that what can you do? I mean at the moment your DD will wear her raincoat and presumably a certain thickness of clothes under it, so that's a good start. Raincoats can trap a surprising amount of warmth in. You could try with thicker clothes in warmer fabrics, maybe with vests or a soft top under if she'd tolerate them (mine accepted the soft seamless vests from M&S), and perhaps look for a similar Peppa pig coat with a fleece lining and see if it becomes an acceptable swap for her once it's actually proper cold out. We are more of a jumper family though, some people are.

If she's non verbal she might also have other sensory challenges.

Regulating your body temperature is really difficult if you're autistic.

I was like your daughter, I was fine with a normal coat but winter coats were stifling and the moments between putting a coat on and leaving the house felt like I was put in an oven.

My own child is autistic now and we wait till he is outside to put his coat on, because he will take it straight back off indoors.

Some days you also just have to pick your battles and let her wear the coat she's comfortable in.

Cold weather also doesn't cause colds. If she's up and about and moving and playing and she's wearing her peppa pig raincoat then she is probably plenty warm enough. Get her a scarf and hat and gloves, and underlayers.

Unless you’re somewhere really cold, the raincoat is probably the right choice at the moment. I know you want to be prepared but it will be easier to persuade her into a warmer coat when it’s actually cold. We’d all resist wearing a winter coat in this weather.