A cranky baby? – behind the scene

  • “My baby cries a lot.”
  • “My baby doesn’t want to eat (solids).”
  • “My baby doesn’t like to get dressed.”
  • “It’s impossible to put my baby to sleep.”
  • “My baby doesn’t like to ride in a car.”
  • “My baby doesn’t like to spend time on her tummy.”

All of these are frequent examples of children’s reactions to sensory stimuli from the environment. To explain it a little bit: there may be many reasons for a baby to cry constantly or not to be able to sleep and it is up to us to find a pattern in the activities that preceded the negative reactions: e.g. bathing, dressing, feeding, going out in the sun etc. It can also be a reaction to an absence of a stimulus. For example: a baby or a child will not be able to fall asleep until he or she gets enough of proprioceptive stimuli (e.g. when we tightly hold the baby in hands). Children who have some oral motor and sensory difficulties will most likely have difficulties breastfeeding (sucking) or will have difficulties chewing their food, especially the solid, chewy items. Also, they might be irritated by the smell or the texture of the food. Furthermore, if a baby is hypersensitive to touch, she might cry while you try changing her clothes and might even be bothered by the etiquette or different materials in her clothes. Children who are hypersensitive to the vestibular stimuli most likely will not enjoy the car rides, while the children on the opposite side of the spectrum love the rides, swinging, walking on a beam (or couch armrest) and other unstable surfaces. Concerning the tummy time, if a child has a vestibular problem, they will probably not want to have their heads in a position towards the floor. If they have low muscle tone, they might have an issue holding their heads up or they might have a problem with their shoulder girdle.

Let me make this more clean with an example of a boy I worked with. He was 9 months old when he came to me and the reason his mom brought him was that he did not sit by himself. So, in our first meeting, I put the boy down on a mat and waited to see his spontaneous movements, reactions and motor skills. He did not want to turn to his tummy. I tried using the toys to get him to turn and stay like that, but he would immediately start to cry very intensely. Putting him into a side sitting position also scared him a bit and he would continue to cry. He didn’t even want to have his fists on the ground in front of himself. But, while he was on his back, he would hold a toy in his hands. After getting to know his motor skills, I took a look at his sensory profile since children until the age of 7 are very sensory oriented. I noticed this boy was hypersensitive to tactile stimuli on his fists and that was the reason he was not using the side sitting. The boy did not want to put his hands onto the floor which prevented him from getting and being in this position. Also, he did not want to have his head face the floor. While on the tummy or on all fours where head needs to be in that position tell us there might have been some vestibular difficulty. The vestibular system gives us information about the head position. When I realized what his sensory difficulties were, I started working with him on a swing – we would swing forward-backward as the linear swinging regulated him.This way we worked and played without any tears.

It is important to know what preceded some negative reaction your child had and look at the situation through sensory glasses. For example, if your child doesn’t like to get dressed and you only manage to put some clothes onto your baby while somebody is holding her or singing, take it as a clue that your baby needs more proprioceptive or auditory stimuli to get regulated. You can give your baby some deep pressures all around his body, especially the joints as if you were trying to reach their bones. Do not squeeze your baby or pinch or lightly caress, just give deep and relaxing pressure with your whole palm. Then, try to get your baby dressed. Any difference in his or her behavior now? If not, check if your baby has a preference in materials and textures or is she or he bothered by the etiquette on the clothes or if the clothes are too cold (after giving a warm bath, clothes can sometimes appear cold).

Posted on by lina. 6 comments

Što se potencijalno krije iza bebinog negodovanja?

  • “Moja beba jako puno plače“.
  • “Moja beba ne želi jesti (krutu hranu)”.
  • “Moja beba se ne voli oblačiti“.
  • “Moju bebu je nemoguće uspavati“.
  • “Moja beba se ne voli voziti u autu”.
  • “Moja beba ne voli biti na trbuhu“.

Sve su to česti primjeri reakcija na osjetilne podražaje iz okoline. Da ukratko obrazložim; može biti mnogo razloga za bebin konstantni plač ili nemogućnost spavanja te bi trebalo pronaći uzorak u tome što prethodi tim radnjama: oblačenje, kupanje, hranjenje, izlazak na sunce itd. Može biti i odsutnost nekog podražaja. Na primjer: beba, odnosno dijete, neće moći zaspati dok ne dobije dovoljno proprioceptivnog podražaja (npr. čvrstog dodira na površinu cijelog tijela kao kada bebu nosimo u naručju). Djeca koja imaju problem oralne motorike i senzorike, teško će sisati majčino mlijeko ili bočicu ili žvakati krutu, pogotovo žilaviju hranu. Također, možda ih smeta intezivan miris hrane ili njena tekstura. Zatim, ako je beba taktilno preosjetljiva, plakat će za vrijeme skidanja i oblačenja te će ju možda smetati i etikete ili neki drugačiji materijali. Djeca koja su vestibularno preosjetljiva neće uživati ili se brzo i lako opustiti za vrijeme vožnje u autu, dok će djeca hiposenzitivna na vestibularni podražaj uživati u vožnjama, ljuljanju, hodanju po gredi (rukovatu od kauča), nestabilnim podlogama itd. Što se tiče boravka na trbuhu, ako je problem vestibularni, onda neka djeca neće htjeti imati glavu u položaju prema podu. Ako je problem niskog mišićnog tonusa, možda im je teško držati glavu gore ili ima možda problem ramenog obruča.

Primjer: Radila sam s jednim dječakom od 9 mjeseci koji je došao na pokazne vježbice jer još nije samostalno sjedio. Na prvom sastanku s njim, kada sam ga stavila na strunjaču i pričekala da vidim spontane kretnje, reakcije i motoriku, nikako se nije okretao na trbuh. Koristeći igračke pokušala sam ga motivirati na boravak na trbuhu, ali nije se htio niti okrenuti, a kamoli boraviti dulje. Odmah bi počeo intezivno plakati. Postavljanje u bočni sjed ga je također dosta plašio te bi i dalje dječak jako plakao. Ručice nije htio držati ispred sebe u bočnom sjedu, ali dok je bio na leđima, ipak bi držao igračku u rukama. Nakon upoznavanja njegove motorike, pogledala sam ga i kroz senzoričke naočale jer su djeca do sedme godine života izrazito senzorička bića. Ispitujući dječakovu senzoriku vidjela sam da dječak ima hipersenzitivno taktilno odstupanje na šakicama te je to razlog njegove nemogućnosti da samostalno zauzme bočni sjed. Jednostavno nije htio držati ručice na podlozi, što je neophodno za ovaj položaj. No, problem je bio i u položaju glave. Dok je na trbuhu i u četveronožnom položaju gdje glava treba gledati prema dolje, možda postoji i vestibularno odstupanje. Vestibularni sustav nam daje informaciju o položaju glave. Kada sam otkrila koja su njegova senzorna odstupanja, krenula sam izvoditi vježbice i položaje na ljuljački koju sam ljuljala naprijed – natrag (linerano ljuljanje) koje je dječaka organiziralo i reguliralo te smo na taj način bez suza postizali sve položaje.

Važno je otkriti što je prethodilo nekakvoj negativnoj reakciji Vašeg djeteta i pogledati situaciju kroz senzorna načela. Na primjer, ako se Vaše dijete ne voli oblačiti i jedino kada Vam to uspijeva je dok bebicu netko drži ili pjeva, uzmite to kao znak da bebici možda treba više proprioceptivnog ili auditivnog podražaja za regulaciju. Možete bebici priuštiti duboke pritiske po tijelu, pogotovo po zglobovima, kao da želite prodrijeti ispod kože do kosti. Nemojte bebu štipati ili lagano dodirivati, samo dajte smirene i duboke pritiske cijelim dlanom. Nakon toga pokušajte s oblačenjem. Ako to nije pomoglo, pogledajte što je još prethodilo plakanju. Ima li razlike u ponašanju s obzirom na različite materijale odjeće? Smeta li Vašu bebu etiketa na robici, temperatura odjeće (npr. iz tople kupke u hladan bodi).

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Activities in the park

Parks are an endless source of sensory input, sometimes easily over stimulating the child, but also a possible endless source of fun, too!

If I asked you what does your park have, what would you say? Would you say: a swing, a slide and a sand box? If your park has all that, that’s awesome. If your park doesn’t have that, if you don’t have a park at all, that’s ok, too! You as a person are more than enough :) what is not so obvious is that parks or some green areas in your neighborhood have tree leaves that are especially in the Fall season colorful (visual), they make noise (audio), if taken in hand they can be a great source of tactile input. Some are dry and make a crisp sound, others are wet and usually not well appreciated among both kids and adults. Who wants dirty hands, right? If your child doesn’t speak, you can help him/her imitate the shhhh sounds of those leaves, too. If you take a few beautiful and colorful leaves home, you can make some creative art. From unusual decorations on a gift box, or sorting them by color or size to making them into powder (the dried ones) and using it to form new shapes (gluing the powder on paper in a shape, mixing it with water etc). I tried making an Indian coloring art called rangoli out of different colors of fallen leaves. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo to share with you. So, all this is just from leaves, and we didn’t even enter a park!
Let’s go inside and hit the swings, the most popular thing in the park. Or at least sharing the first place with the slide. Since there’s a high demand for a swing, sometimes kids have to wait for their turn, right? That mostly means either shout: “I wanna goooo!” Or cry until the child on the swing leaves. Older parks, at least here in Croatia, have those kinds of swings that swing you only forward-backward.

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More modern parks nowadays have those disks made out if rope which one can swing in any direction including rotations (in some cases).

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Swinging a child (also applicable for putting a baby to sleep) in different directions gives their brains different information or better to say, different sensory input. Forward-backward swinging mostly affects the frontal cortex whose primary task is thinking while left-right swinging mostly affects the balance part of the brain.
Aside from actual swinging, you may practice planning and sequencing with your child. Especially if you have more children. Let them wait their turn starting from short period of waiting to progressively longer. Ask your child to list you the order of children in which they will go on a swing. This you can also do on a slide, but in addition, you can ask your child to verbally describe how they want to slide down – on their backs / tummies, upside down etc. Once they are up there on a slide, you can have the child count one, two, threeee… and then go down.Then change the rhythm. Oneeee, two, threeee… Another popular item in the park is the sand box. Sand gives a very strong sensory input. It has no obvious boundaries so childrens’ reactions to sand are similar to those of the shaving foam: fear, disgust, vomiting, etc. depending on your child’s sensory profile. You may make this game intriguing to a child who doesn’t like sand on their hands by putting some small objects or toys into the sand pit and ask the child to take it out. Digg deep! It can be anything from small balls to small rubber animals or blocks. Another suggestion is to make the sand wet by adding some water. Do it progressively and observe your child’s reactions. Does your child like it better when the sand was dry or when it was a cookie dough or perhaps when it is completely muddy? After you are done squeezing the sand through your fingers, you may take some shapes and create imprints in sand.

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You may also use equipment in the park to make a polygon. Give your child a toy and specific instructions on how to overcome all the obstacles and have them put the toy in the basket in the end of the polygon. That will give a meaning to this string of activities and obstacles a child has to go through.

 

 

Posted on by lina. 5 comments