Screaming while getting undressed

[tortoisewoman]

Hi everyone, longtime lurker but first time poster here, looking for some thoughts/advice. My DP has a 4 y/o DS. He has been staying with us this week and has started screaming in pain whenever he has to lift his arms above his head to get his top off to get undressed. He says it's because "his arm hurts", but there are a few strange things we've noticed.
The injured arm changes every day - sometimes the left, sometimes the right.
He first said it was because the cat had scratched him, even though there's no mark to be seen. Then he said it was because he had "fallen over and hurt it like Daddy" - Daddy (DP's ex) has epilepsy and sometimes hurts his arms if he has a seizure. DP wonders if DS has picked up on this as a reason why a person is unable to do something.
DS can lift his arms above his head to do other activities e.g. get a light switch, yoga, and strangest of all, put a t-shirt ON. The screaming and sobbing only starts when a t-shirt needs to come OFF.
DS has ASD and a speech delay, so I'm wondering if it's an interoception thing - feeling pain somewhere but not being able to describe it and so saying it's his arms.
This seems like more than just a whinge about not wanting to get undressed because he seems genuinely distressed and cries real tears, including after the new top has been put on. Has anyone else experienced this? Or any ideas? Thanks in advance! 😊

Is it just once a day when he's getting ready for bed? Could he just be a bit tired and overwhelmed at the end of the day?

If he's got ASD & Speech Delay, you may be better asking in the SN Section though

@PritiPatelsMaker It's in the morning when he has to get out of his pyjama top and into new clothes, if he has to lift his arms over his head to put a jumper on in the middle of the day, and the other day he refused to change out of a t-shirt with juice spilt down the front because of it. Thank you for the advice though, how do I move this thread to SN? :)

You can report your own thread, then when the box comes up asking why you've reported it, just ask them to move it for you

Bumping for some input!

Lots of children with ASD struggle with the squeeze of the head hole going over their head, and taking things off is often worse as it pulls the hair on the back of the head against it's natural grain, and is more likely to get stuck on their noise or chin.

Does he have any cloths with either big head holes or zip/buttons up the front? DS used to wear vests instead of t-shirts as they tend to be looser, with a zip up fleece over the top. Polo shirts are also good but I tend to only get patterned ones so they don't look like school uniform.

That is genius - DS's favourite t-shirt is a really oversized one that he can get over his head with no problem! We'll experiment with baggier tops!