Ds sensitive to clothes. Any ideas to help him?

[macwoozy]

My ds is becoming more and more sensitive to clothes, especially with tops that have embroidered pictures etc. I can get him to wear a vest underneath, but he has a few tops where the stitching is high up on the neck or on the arms, and he's refusing to wear them now. It's such a waste. Does anyone know of any material that I could stick to the inside of the top so the stitching won't irritate him, maybe something that can be ironed on???

Not sure if it's of any help but my DD ( now 6 with DS)was quite funny with different textures including clothing. She hated it while I was dressing/undressing her because her hair tickled her neck and shoulders.
Thank goodness she is nowhere near as bad now, not sure if she just grew out of it or if sensory therapy helped.
We took her to BIBIC and they recommended a program, including massaging her. Introducing different textures, eg rough followed by smooth, and hot followed by cold....

Still haven't read it all but I know there have been loads of recommendations for the book "The out of sync child" in the past.

Sorry I can't be of any more help!!

Thanks dingle, I'll check that book out on Amazon, to add to my ever increasing library of recommendations

It's strange, my ds seems to be more sensitive to sound/texture the older he's becoming. He's always been much more sensitive than most, but I don't understand why the problem for him is actually escalating.

we have always had the same problem. all labels must be removed, only certain textures allowed.
The sensitivity comes and goes I think in sync with his Aspie behaviour.

We had an occupational therapist come to our school to talk about 'sensory integration' and she talked about children who are very sensitive to labels, seams, etc. Sounds very similar to what Dingle is talking about as she recommended the same book. It might be worth seeing if there are any Occupational Therapists in your area who have some expertise in this area who can help you with more suggestions. She talked about a similar thing with desensitising.

Is your lo feeling under any stress / pressure / emotional change etc. I have found that the children I work with have a different way of coping in these situations and this sometimes comes out as specific behaviours / sensitivities.

My son was sensitive to labels, buttons, zips, badges on clothes and writing on clothes so I had to dress him in elasticated trousers and totally plain tops. He could find writing in the most unusual places...

Two weeks ago (now 6) he informed me that he was now happy to wear clothes with buttons and infact wanted me to buy some . Its funny the things that make you happy after years of clothing trauma.

DS2 is the same. I think the ones with pictures on the front the material is harder on the inside and as you say, have stitching where stitching shouldn't be, or just different anyway.

I can't think of anything you could iron on though, in this house it would have to something very soft and well-worn you see, but then it might not fix on properly and that would in turn be annoying.

I'm tempted to say 'leave it' and put them away, and go down somewhere cheap and buy an armload of soft plain tops! How old is he? I might have a load of just what you want here - and they will be third hand and so VERY soft!

My ds2 is the same. He likes the look of the clothes with pictures on the front but then either won't wear them at all or insists on wearing them back-to-front.

We did massaging with a towel (soft towel to start with and then gradually a rougher one). It helped a lot as before then ds2 wouldn't wear clothes at all. He does now at least keep clothes on when outside the house.

Thanks all for your replies

ahundredtimes that's a kind offer, although ds does have more than enough tops already, it's just a shame that the 'cool' ones have all this extra stitching going on.

lorisparkle, you might have a point there. ds has had some changes lately, he's been moved into the language unit so it's a whole new change.I wonder if that could add to his sensitivities.