My son has meltdowns and no attention span,

by Cheryl
(Bucks County, Pa)

My son is 28 month old son and was born prematurely and has developmental delay. My son also has a twin brother who is ahead with his development. He still can not talk and has low muscle tone. My son is extremely hyper. He can't communicate with his twin, they do not play together. He is not pickling up on his brothers vocabulary. He is very difficult to bathe and change, he never stays still.

When he is in his booster seat for feeding he constantly rocks or will have a melt down when he does not want to eat. My son weighs 22 lbs and just wants to drink milk more than eat food. He rarely drinks anything but milk and has a meltdown if you try to give him anything else but milk. He does not have any attention span. He has been in Early Intervention since he was 6 months old and the therapists are now having more trouble than ever before to get him to concentrate and stay still.

He is addicted to standing on a chair in my kitchen to watch Sprout Network on the TV on my counter top. When he is not watching TV, he will constantly rock or go from one thing to another and rarely sit still. He will have meltdowns for no apparent reason through out the day. When it's bed time, he no longer wants to be rocked, he will continue to push away and will not sit through a book like he used to. He just will not stay still, not even for his physical therapy like the brushing or joint compressions that he needs in order to calm down.

He was never a good napper, always wanted to be rocked and now he is just constantly stimulated and hyper. I now have to leave him in the crib at night and after he has his own little party for sometimes over an hour, he falls asleep. He also puts his fingers in his ears during his own meltdown when there is no other noise around him. When he his having a meltdown in his booster seat, he will squeeze his food with his hands then pull on his fingers and cry like his hands are bothering him. I am trying to figure out what sensory disorder does he have. Can you help me by giving me the exact sensory disorder that he may have?

I have admit his attention span and meltdowns have gotten worse since we put a TV in there play room and the TV is on all day which I have told the grandmothers to cut the TV off and only use it certain times during the day. I also have my mother in law who watches him 4 days during the week and she is out of control with stimulating my son. She does not leave him alone for a second and because she does snot wear her hearing aides, she is very loud all of the time and she is full of energy and is so nervous over my son, she goes overboard with stimulating him and never gives him downtime. Could that be hurting my son, my mother law would never put him in the crib and leave him to fall asleep by himself. If he is not calm and wants to party, she will take him out and keep stimulating him to the point that her voice is horse when I get home from work. I am very concerned and want to make sure my son is getting the right help while his twin is getting the right attention as well. There is no balance. Please give me some insight, Thank you.