Starting To Understand

by worried momma

I have two beautiful little boys aged 6 and 8. For years I've been trying to understand why my oldest seems like the perfect child, while my youngest has been the hardest to control and handle basically since birth.

His first tantrum was at 4 months old when I took a rattle away from him to give him a bottle, and it just seemed to go downhill from there. It's gotten steadily worse since he started school. He plays great with other children, but then at the drop of a dime, he will just have a melt down, seemingly for no reason.

At story time, during class, or any other "quiet" time, he will just scream out loud for no reason. He's disruptive, he hits other children, touches other children and can't seem to understand why they want to get away from him when he does this, so he gets frustrated and lashes out.

He has a thing with his clothes as well. He'll change his shirt 20 times a day, literally, if i let him. When he has his "melt downs" I found that cuddling him or just rubbing his back or belly, would make him calm down. For a long time I took this as he just wanted some attention.

The school has tried to tell me that my son has ADHD, and this is currently being assessed by our family doctor. I don't believe this is the case after going through this checklist. My son hit on so many things it's unbelievable. This list basically described my son to a "T" on numerous points. This has helped me as a parent so much. I've gone through so much stress and worry that there was something really wrong with my son, and I didn't have any idea how to reach him or even understand what he was possibly going through.

Also, seeing the other responses, I realize I'm not the only parent going through this with their child (which I was kinda thinking I was). I'd only heard of SPD recently, and it's nice to see that there may just be something that can help me help my son.

So really, I'm just saying thank you to everyone who put this all together. This really will help my boy out in the future!