Highly sensitive children

I was wanting to know if anyone else out there has a highly sensitive child?

I have been looking more and more into this since reading about it about a year or so ago. Ayja seems to fit the bill very extremely well, with our main problem/battles being clothing related/sensation related.

Since she was a baby, anything bunched or creased would mean she'd be upset, cry, not settle to sleep until it was fixed.

As she has gotten older, she reacts more to things but is voicing what upsets her, whereas before we could not always tell what was causing the seemingly "out of no-where" drastic reactions - (think exorcist...screaming red-faced, waiting for her head to start spinning, type of reaction)

Getting dressed is a real battle at our house, she litterally will spend about half an hour re-adjusting her singlet beneath her top when she puts it on in the morning, pulling at the sleeves, the ticket at the back, the neckline, the envelope shoulders.. back forth up down rolling shoulders.. intense screams at it for being "Bunchy!" the next struggle is to get the sleeves sorted ... any long sleeves on on top of another long sleeve and they are pulled at madly, again with screams in frustration and how horrible they feel,folded ..re-folded, mostly the singlet sleeves end up pulled out the ends of the top sleeves looking rather horrible and messy really. Jackets and jerseys.. ugh even worse, rugging up to go out is horrible.

Winter is our worst nightmare, summer is mostly better, but still pretty bad because she hates her skin exposed to the sun too much, the sun is too bright, she doesn't go outside for most of the time, prefers to spend time indoors. hates wearing hats, needs sunglasses because the sun is too bright but hates how they feel on her face.

socks have to be put on just right, I am not allowed to touch her feet or put on her socks, the seams upset her no end, socks with pictures are a no-no because they hurt her feet, stockings she hates because they hug her skin too much, 3/4 pants aren't right because they are neither shorts, nor long pants and she can't stand that.

She would rather miss out on going to the park than have to put on shoes and socks and a jacket to go.. seriously... we say we are off to the park and you'd think we told her we were going to eat glass.

There are many other aspects to this too obviously, but the clothes are what wears us down.

Anyone making any jokes at her expense she will run away and hide in embarassment, any raised voice she completely shuts down and will take herself to her room. even if she cries she gets angry at the tears because she hates the sensation of the "wetness". She is so much fun in between, but very exhausting and hard to get out the door to school each day/get dressed after the bath/get dressed for swimming/or ready for pippins. Once the battle is over and her clothing is sitting on her body how it feels right to her, she's great, happy happy child, very artistic, creative, intuitive, sparkly personalilty, intelligent and competitive with her older sister. But oh how the battles wear me down.

Has anyone out there experienced this?

I don't have a HSC but I was one myself so I can empathise with what you are going through. For me it was the way stuff felt on my skin, particularly clothing. I hated socks esp the seams of them, and I can still remember how frustrated my mum got because she couldn't understand why I was so upset that my socks didn't feel right. I also hated jerseys and jackets because the sleeves of my shirt bunched up, and I hated wearing stockings coz of the way they felt. It still takes me ages to get dressed after swimming coz I don't like the feeling of being damp and I get upset if my clothes don't sit right or get bunched up. I can't wear certain types of material because the way it feels on my skin makes me cringe, and it took me a long time to feel ok about putting cream on my skin.

I was also very highly strung according to my mum, and took a lot of stuff to heart that probably wouldn't have bothered other kids. Esp when I felt that people might be looking at me/talking about me.

In my early teens I became very light sensitive and my parents got me blackout curtains because I couldn't sleep if there was any light in my room. I also had hypersensitive hearing and could hear the static in the radio alarm clock even if it was turned off.

I didn't like anyone touching me and brushing my hair was torture. My Mum told me after I had G that as a baby I wouldn't cuddle her or my Dad, and even as a very young baby I would push them away because I hated being touched.

My parents were very good, although I am sure I drove my Mum absolutely crazy and I still remember the meltdowns I had over clothes. One thing I do remember is how overwhelming everything was, even my feelings felt too big for me. My parents encouraged me to try new things and pushed me to do things that I found scary and overwhelming. I didn't appreciate that at the time - I hated them for making me do stuff that I found scary like meeting new people or going somewhere new - but I am glad they did that for me now.

I guess I don't really have any good advice but I wanted you to know that it sounds like you are doing really well coping with it. The things I remember from my childhood are Mum trying her best to understand and empathise with me, and although she couldn't make it better it made me feel like she really cared how I felt. Its not easy and I hope that things get better for you. In my case I still have some of my 'quirks' but mostly I grew out of them gradually as I approached my late teens. to you.

james is the same most because of his dyspraxia which is a major sympotom he hates when his colthes bunch or are not sitting right or if his socks are to tight or sore. he also has food aversions he donst seem to like certain foods in his mouth i talked to james ot and her advise was to expose james to the things he donst likie so far so good there was a lot of screaming and tears from james but he is getting better big hugs i know its hard