Poop...it IS all that!

So my youngest, Hannah is 4, and can't potty train...not won't, but can't.  Not much different from the boys except she merely flirts ever so subtly with the autism spectrum.  In fact, if you ever get a chance to view a documentary call Autistic Like :Graham's Story, that's a lot like Hannah.  She has "issues".  Ah, hell, don't we all.  10 years ago her needs would never have been met and she would have been berated, put down and frowned upon.

Hannah's diagnoses is Sensory Processing Disorder, or SPD, along with low muscle tone and fine gross motor delays.  All of which affects her entire sensory system as well as her adaptive abilities.  Don't get me wrong she is her Mother's daughter and is about as willful as a food addict in Dunkin' Donuts, but honestly that has nothing to do with her adaptive needs and central nervous system.

Central nervous system...yup, let me explain.  Our central nervous system affects all our sensory abilities and reactions.  It feeds into the way we visually see things (too bright, too dark), hear things (too loud, too low) and even how we react to pain and physical feeling.  For many children with SPD if they are "hypersensitive" many every day noises and sights cause physical pain.  I still have to warn or cover my children's ears if I know a toilet is about to flush too loud.  If "hyposensitive" they are under reactive to pain.  I have two that will run in to walls and not complain but act like a hangnail is the apocalypse.

The kicker is though most children (and adults, but I will get to that in another post), are not all hypersensitive or hyposensitive. A lot of SPD cases take a little from the hypo and a little from the hyper.  An example, I took Jacob at age 16 months to a fire works display.  Remember, he was my first and what the hell did I know was typical toddler behavior;)  The minute the explosions began he literally passed out in the back pack carrier.  The noise was deafening, I even covered my own ears a few times, but Jacob snored throughout.  It wasn't until I was walking us back to the car and a motorcycle revved it's engines, screaming past did the wee lad jerk awake, screaming like he'd been stabbed in the head with an icepick.  It took almost two hours to settle him.  That as my first "aha" moment.

So back to Hannah.  She attends Occupational Therapy weekly and I just finally learned she qualifies for special education preschool.  Her gastroenterologist confirmed her inability to feel the sensations that tell her she needs to use the bathroom is due to low muscle tone and as such hard stool embedded in her colon...yeas...feel free to barf......NOW;)  Until she clears that stool, her muscles are effectively paralyzed and Miralax is our constant companion.  We went through an identical situation with Cormac, but somedays it would be nice to have all the wee muckers out of nappies (diapers).  Face it peeps, I've been wiping shite for 11 years.......roll on miralax session number 3 and proper early intervention.