Tactile Defensiveness & Mercury

by Gidget
(CA)

My 7 year old son has always fought putting on socks, shoes, and clothes that have tags or are too tight, especially underwear, which we discovered recently he wasn't wearing at all to school - yikes!

He now receives a sticker on his "chore chart" when he puts them on without a fight.

Thankfully, we're in CA, so he can wear loose basketball shorts daily. But even on the west coast, flip flops are not a good option for winter time and so we struggle and sometimes there are "melt downs". We thought this was just a quirk until a neighbor let me read her copy of "The Out-of-Sync Child" and things began to fit.

With that said, we just got test results back that our son has mercury in his system. Since it's not from tooth fillings or seafood/fish because he doesn't eat it, the source is most likely from the Thimerosal preservative which contains mercury that was in his immunizations. We are now looking at ways to remove the heavy metal from his system since it causes much havoc in his body, from neurological to digestive.

While researching mercury toxicity, I was surprised to find that it affects nerve endings and can result in a tingling sensation or actual pain when being touched, etc. Our son will sometimes scratch his skin until he causes himself to bleed. When we ask why he's doing this, he claims because "it bothers him". Never understood what "it" meant, but I'm now thinking it may be his nerve endings due to the heavy metal poisoning he's experiencing.

I'm wondering if the issue of mercury or heavy metals have been connected with Tactile Dysfunction?