SPD Support Forum

I am new to this forum and SO thankful to find it! I have a 4 year old little boy with SPD. He is a sensory seeker, mostly tactile and smell but is affected in some degree in every sense. He was diagnosed about 9 months ago and we are currently in OT weekly. I am trying to soak in information in order to help him. We were doing better for a while in regards to meltdowns and setbacks but in the past 3 weeks, it seems that we have taken a step backwards, although I am not sure why. My question today is regarding cold temps.
I took A to swim yesterday at a heated indoor pool. He LOVES to swim as long as the water is not in his face. He was very excited about going and happily got in the water and was playing great for about 20 minutes. He got out of the pool to get a toy and immediately started to get very whiny and was showing signs of a meltdown so I tried asking him to tell me what was wrong. He is delayed in speech but not a lot so generally I can get the point by process of elimination. He was starting to cry and scream loudly so I took him to the dressing room. I sat with him for a few minutes thinking the quiet would calm him down. It didn't. He said he wanted to swim so we tried one more time and after 5 minutes in the water, he was at full meltdown stage. So I took him to change his clothes to go home still not sure what had caused this. He was shaking, recoiling from any touch and it seemed to be very painful to him as I took off his wet clothes. I asked him if he was cold and he sobbed and said that he was. I asked him if it hurt and he again, screaming and sobbing, said that it did. After I got his dry clothes on, he did stop screaming but still did not want me to hold or touch him for quite a while. It seemed as if he was almost in a daze as he was turning the sink water on and off for a couple of minutes while I dried and changed. After it was all over and we were home, I tried to talk to him about what had happened but he was unable to tell me (not sure if it was the speech delay or he just didn't really know). Anyway my question is does this make sense to you guys and can you tell me what he might have been feeling and if cold is painful to those with SPD?

Hi! My 5 yr old boy has trouble with temp changes as well, not to this extent though, and usually his is hot (if the water is too hot, the sun looks at him the wrong way, his food is too warm, you name it!) My experience with him is that he would say it hurts because that is the language he had at the time; but that part I cannot say for sure, because temperature changes can experienced differently to those with SPD. I have had similar instances with my son that you experienced with yours. I would guess that when your son got out of the water, the change in the air temperature he was unable to process- I went through this with my son. (We have had some interesting moments!)
I have found that knowing that J is sensitive to warmer temperatures as well as temperature changes is helpful in that I can be proactive. I make sure I put his dinner in the freezer before I give it to him; the bath temperature is consistant, we cool his carseat before he gets in, in the summer I keep hats in the car for him, etc. It doesn't always work at preventing meltdowns, but it can be helpful.

My daughter, 2 1/2, can only feel particular parts of her skin on whether she is cold or hot. She loves to swim so as the parents we have to check her skin. The weird part for us is the fact that once we touch her skin with our hands she will start to do small meltdowns. I don't know if it is because we have to do pressure to feel her skin or what. I have her signed up for swimming class so i hope it gets better as time goes on. I wish you luck whenever you go back to swim