SPD Halloween: How and Why!

Halloween (and all Holidays) in our house are like that favorite Aunt that comes to visit (or Uncle, or Grandma....you get the idea) the kids love love love it when they come to visit.... all the "anticipation" of the arrival. The fun treats they give them....but the aftermath and repercussions of to much attention, loud talking or noise, and sugar are just to much and in the end we wave goodbye and shut the door and its takes at least a week to go back to our normal lives.

But oh wait there is more....on top of all that, we also then have Sensory Issues. Clothing, lighting, others costumes, sounds, physically touching by others or others to *pick out candy* its all the worst possible Sensory Overload (and actually more so than the 4th of July) so I know....you ask. THEN WHY PUT YOUR CHILDREN THROUGH ALL THAT?

Thats hard to answer, because they so desperately want to be normal when it comes to Sensory Issues and not SEE the effects of it. For most of the other 365 days of the year they dont feel any different or seam any different to their friends and family all to often. (Note: This is how it is for my boys at least right now because of their age, as they get older its starting to become more aware in their eyes that they are different even in little ways) However as parents we want to protect them from things that hurt them (physically, emotionally ect...) They hear friends talk about costumes, candy, pumpkin patches and harvest party's and they just want to be included in what sounds like so much fun and not have to worry about all the things we as parents of SPD kids worry about on a daily basis. Things we almost worry about for them if that makes sense. We dress them on any other day in clothes we know will be *ok* so they dont worry about that, we pack textured approved foods in there lunch box so when they open it in front of their friends.....they are *ok* and dont have to worry about that. As parents its our jobs to deflect as much of the "NOT OK" things and baggage that comes with not only SPD but as much as life has to throw at them in general. Halloween just makes that job a little harder.

You want so badly for your child to be happy, healthy, involved, make friends, participate in fun traditions we ourselves did as children on Holidays. But there has to be a line between involving them and throwing them in the fire and hoping for the best. I could very well give in to there every whim and take them to that Halloween Store and get them the costume they want instead of negotiating for one I know they will FEEL better in. I just cant justify going all in and hoping for the best when (and I could say KNOW what would happen, but my kids surprise me all the time so I dont know actually) the outcome is more likely going to be a long recovery or worse experience all together than not dong it at all. Or this is the struggle I find myself in at least. This year we are in costumes, Wyatt has always done well with costumes we do look for ones that are not SO restricting and/or mimic regular shirt and pants like this years Police Officer Costume. Nash is in a costumes for the first time since a baby (when you know we....urged him strongly......just put him in anything we thought was cute!) Nash is Mario. While he is ok with his for the most part, we got over the bumps and scratchiness by finding perfect clothes for UNDER it. While in it, he is on overdrive in every other sensory area. Its almost like he is trying SO HARD to be OK with being in it because he picked it and he took ownership he has to be ON TOP of everything else and is exhausted after a hour. (thus we figured out this week when he was wearing it two do dry run at Grandmas and today when we went to some neighborhood activities)

So to go back to that burning question some may have....we do this because THEY do want it for the most part. They want to be involved and just dont know what that means and its our job as parents to make it *OK*. We COULD very well ignore it all and go on like any other day and answer there questions about why others are doing it and not us. I mean there are many things others do that we do not of course. But we ask ourselves if it was not for SPD and well just everything our family deals with all together would we still be (insert almost anything *birthdays, weddings, holidays* we ask this of ourselves a lot) celebrating Halloween and doing all this. The answer, Yes!

So for now we just give a little at a time, not to much and not to fast and enjoy every moment, even the hard ones!

~ Kristen


Halloween Tips for Children with Sensory Processing Disorder and/or Autism