Aspergers/ASD support thread

Brenny

I wondered whether anyone can help with the problem my grandchild has. She has been diagnosed as having Aspergers, but the main concern at the moment is her refusal to wear certain clothes. It's not too much of an issue that she won't wear clothes with long sleeves (as she WILL wear a coat) but she refuses to wear pants. She does wear them to school, but pulled down so that they are around her thighs! She wears tights at weekends, but again pulled down. She has stopped wearing trousers so it is becoming a bit of an issue (she is 7 years old) but don't know how to "encourage" her. Tried all usual ways (bribes, star charts, rewards). Does anyone know of any underwear that is soft, no seams, etc. that we can try.

D&DD

Hiya with my son it is labels in the underwear,sometimes the fabric and often just the colour! I would try a pair of jersey cotton briefs as they are really soft and tend to be a bit looser.They can be quite hard to track down hopefully someone else will advise where to buy (I'm not much good for girls stuff I have 3 boys!)

whatamess_2

Hi have you tried boys boxer shorts? If she wears skirts it sounds like she has a dislike of things around her crotch area. This is not a massive problem at the mo but when puperty and periods hit it will be.Maybe boxer shorts are worth a try. Gradually getting a snugger fit in the crotch area.
Regards Messy

rainee

children with autism/Aspergers have these strange phobias/rituals my daughter went through a stage of only wanting to wear dresses no trousers etc my son (more autistic than her) decided that he would only wear jogging bottoms and strippy socks......
he still insists on wearing a vest under everything even during the summer we even had him wearing long pj during the summer as well
if my memory serves me correctly m&s did some seamless ones (sports ones) or i presume you have tried the character ones which worked quite well on my son when we were trying to toilet train him at 5. he was mad on thomas at the time so took him shopping (which was a nightmare ) and he bought his own which made him feel very big with the shop handing him change and the bag!

black-saturn

No advice here other than to say the 80's pop star Gary Numan has aspergers syndrome and he didnt do too badly for himself.

Js_Other_Half

Any luck with trying the national autistic society:-
http://www.nas.org.uk/ ?

Brenny

Thanks for all your replies. We have tried shorts, but I haven't tried boy's boxers yet - I think I may buy some and sew up the front and see if we can get her in those. Have also looked in M&S for seamless but couldn't see any. Will try and bigger store. I couldn't see anything on the NAS site, although I did find an American site with seamless socks (also another of her hates)! Not sure about her pop singing talents either......!!!!

crutches

most boys boxers for under 10's dont have flies anymore to sew up.

vertbaudet/la redoute/tesco/peacocks/primark and asda all do girls boxers now which might appeal?

good luck!

Savvy_Sue

Yup, good luck! It is possible that as time goes by - depending on HOW Aspergery she is - that she will come to accept that wearing pants is one of the 'rules'. My eldest would not wear anything with a collar or buttons from the age at which he was capable of expressing an opinion until he went to school, lived in t-shirts, sweat-shirts and jog bottoms. They also had to be plain, and coordinating colours: so he had a red day (including pants and socks!), a green day, a blue day and a black day. Infant school was OK, because it was a t-shirt, and I introduced the trousers as 'school' trousers. Right, that's what we wear to school. Then he moved to a school where they had to wear shirts and ties, and again, because these were 'school' clothes, that was OK: we wear these to school, but we wear one colour clothes at the weekend!

Even now he lives in t-shirts, sweatshirts (no zips or buttons!) and jog bottoms, except when he goes to work. I bought him some Monday to Friday socks (black with the days of the week on them) and he will only wear each pair on the 'right' day!

I know it doesn't work for all children, but you can hope ... and the boxers sounds like a good idea!

Brenny

Thanks for all your replies. I liked the idea of the different coloured socks on different days, even as an adult. She has got her favourite blanket that I have threatened to cut up and make pants from but she wasn't too keen on that idea (also, I think she would have been teased at school wearing yellow woolly pants with holes in!!) :rolleyes:

And, as for getting her to school, that's another thread!!

mummysaver

Tesco do ladies pants that are seam free - noticed these the other day. Perhaps a small size pair may not irritate her to much, and would still have enough room to please her.

My dd3 doesn't have Aspergers, but will not wear anything that is "tight" (meaning meant to be worn at waist height, not necessarily even tight in the normal sense of the word) around her middle, pants, tights and skirts are always on her hips - so perhaps this is a more common thing amongst children than just an Aspergers issue. Though obviously this doesn't help you with her not wearing knickers!

Perhaps we should pair up my daughter with your grand-daughter, at least then there would be two of them semi naked!

Good luck in finding something that she will wear though, perhaps you could try the above poster's "these are school pants and must be worn to school!, and see how well it works - it's always worth a try.