Autistic DS and his ears!

[HerculesMulligan]

DS is 9 - autistic, bright, has various sensory things going on which we navigate as they come up.

Something we've just realised is that he has a real aversion to sensory stuff around his ears. (This isn't about hearing, I don't think, it's about the actual skin of his ears). It explains problems we're having with swimming, with certain clothes, with haircuts, with hairwashing etc.

My current plan is to try to get him to massage them with a little moisturiser to see if that helps him to desensitise them, but what else could I do? If we could sort this out, it would unlock all sorts of good stuff for him, I think.

Ds is similar with his ears. He hates stuff touching them I think it’s because they are a very sensitive part of the body (according to Google and dh) - he’s the same with stuff in his private area. Ds also says it’s all the ‘tickly folds’ - I don’t know what this means.
Things we do to stop ear issues:
Mullet style haircut - these are popular with boys at the moment, ds has one as it stops hair touching his ears in the bath/shower/anywhere, his mullet is quite discrete
Shower wash hair with tap - we have a detachable shower hose (sorry English isn’t my home language) that means he can aim the water better
In ear headphones- he has Moulded in ear headphones so he can listen to music without uncomfy big headphones.
Im also autistic and have very sensitive armpits (sorry tmi) so I know how very uncomfortable it is!

Your ds might be different but ds hates moisturiser as he finds it really slimy and he doesn’t like it on his hands. Just to bear in mind it might not help as it’s a tricky texture. Have you had a sensory assessment? We payed for a private one with ds and the OT came up with some good suggestions. You can get them on the nhs too? I think OT is meant to be good for ASD kids and sensory integration. We are looking at getting some sessions for ds.