Hygiene and kids do not always go together like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong. Throw sensory sensitivity into the mix and shoo bop shoo wadda wadda yipitty boom de boom, chang chang changitty chang sha-bop is not gonna happen.

Hygiene Tips for Kids Who Are Sensory Sensitive

Claire Louise, mom to a son with who is sensory sensitive, knows this. So in a recent post at her blog, A Boy with Asperger’s Syndrome, she shares strategies she uses to help her son practice good hygiene. She offers these tips in these areas:

• Teeth brushing
• Bathing
• Hand washing
• Nail clipping and cleaning

Hygiene Tips: A Closer Look at Bathing

To give you an idea of what’s included in each category, here’s a closer look at the information in the section about bathing. First, she explains why her son doesn’t like bathing:

Reasons for the refusal are mainly centered around tactile sensations shortly following a swim in the tub. He understands that the feeling of wetness within certain body areas is quickly fixed with a towel, but it still concerns him leading to avoidance. One of the reasons is that he also hates the sensation of tight clean skin, wrinkly fingers, and other things that are very present (probably more so) once you have towel-dried.

Claire Louise then offers these specific tips:

• Showers are a better option than bathing for children who don’t like the feeling of being submerged in water, tight and clean skin, or wrinkly fingers and toes.
• Don’t use soap, as it makes skin feel even tighter.
• Use a good body wash instead of soap.
• Apply lotion and creams after bath or shower to ease feeling of tightness.

To read her suggestions for tooth brushing, hand washing, and nail clipping, read her entire post, Tips for Parents of Tactile Defensive Children. (Claire Louise is from the United Kingdom. Tactile Defensive is the UK equivalent of sensory sensitive.)

Your Hygiene Tips?

What strategies do you use to help your kids get squeaky clean? Leave a comment.

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