Focused Distractions Comments

Kristine: Some kids ultra-sensitive to socks, shirt seams, tags

nospam@example.com (Kristine) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:42:32 -0400

I feel like everything you mentioned in your article and what the other parents have experienced is exactly what we live with every day with our five year old daughter. Some days she is ok, and she will put her underwear and socks on and not complain too much, but there are other days when she causes everyone to be late because she doesn't like any of the clothes, shoes, underwear or socks she tries. Sometimes she starts by waking up and starting with a tantrum and then it is all downhill from there. I never know from one day to the next if we will have a good day. She approves the clothes usually the night before, but there is no telling whether she will change her mind in the morning. I feel so terrible because sometimes I don't have the patience to deal with her since I have two other siblings that need to get to school as well. Thank you for this posting, I will be sure to read as much as I can so we know how to deal with her without anger and resentment.

Anna: Some kids ultra-sensitive to socks, shirt seams, tags

nospam@example.com (Anna) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:08:58 -0400

I'm so glad I found this site! Oddly enough, it's not my issue, but mine!

I remember hating socks and shoes as a kid, and the texture of denim or clothing tags drove me nuts. IT still does as a matter of fact.

Thankfully I'm a stay at home mom now, because I can't bare to wear socks. I've worm only flip flops in the last 3 years!

My mother in law seriously thinks I have OCD, and thankfully my husband just accepts me, and is willing to buy me excessively expensive overly fluffy bath towels.

For everyone: the way I describe the sensation to my husband, is that it's similar to fingernails on a chalk board.

It didnt used to be so extreme when I was younger, but that's what its like now. Certain textures make me cringe, and hurt my brain, for lack of a better explaination, like the chalkboard thing.

If anyone has any method of un-sensitising the hyper sensitive, or tips I would love it if you could contact me.

Vicky: Some kids ultra-sensitive to socks, shirt seams, tags

nospam@example.com (Vicky) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:01:45 -0400

I read your comment Mandi and I felt like you were talking about my daughter...I started to cry!. She is now 51/2 and she has always had clothing issues. Like you mentioned she is "normal" in every other aspect but socks and shoes are a "deadly" combination and TRULY affect us every time we need to get prepared to go anywhere. I have spent many mornings dealing with a child crying and screaming "it HURTS" because she had to wear socks and boots/shoes. Pants, shirts and UNDERWEAR are also huge issue! I'm having a hard time understand and knowing how to deal with this issue! Vicky

Tara: Basecamp: Manage your Projects

nospam@example.com (Tara) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:56:43 -0400

Basecamp didn't fit me
I could not set dead-lines for tasks... how am I supposed to get them done, if I don't remember when I need to get them done. I switched to Wrike...

mlgift: Cogmed Working Memory Training

nospam@example.com (mlgift) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:59:24 -0400

My son is starting the cogmed soon and I have not been able to find anyone that has been successful in getting their insurance company to cover any portion. Have you any other information?

cathy: Some kids ultra-sensitive to socks, shirt seams, tags

nospam@example.com (cathy) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:01:41 -0400

nordstroms sells seamless sock..about $10 for 2 or 3 pairs..

Karen: First Annual Virtual ADHD Conference

nospam@example.com (Karen) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:02:56 -0400

I met Dr. Amen at a lecture he gave and then participated in his brain study of injured and uninjured brains. I learned a lot about the damage that can occur even from normal children's bangs to the head - the kind that happen to most kids who engage in sports.

If you are interested in the brain and how it works, I highly recommend reading ""My Stroke of Insight"" by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. It's on the NY Times Bestseller list and it's a wonderful book. Dr. Taylor's talk at TED dot com is also AMAZING! Oprah interviewed Dr. Taylor and you can check that out on Oprah.com. And Time Magazine named Dr. T one of the 100 Most Influential people in the world. Having read her book, I can see why all the attention.

Dr. Amen's book is brain science and it's great at that. Dr. Taylor is a Harvard Brain Scientist, but what she writes about is the science and much more. She really cracks the code to understand how our brains (right and left hemispheres) work and she explains how we can get into our right brain and be happier and more joyful. Aside from any of the science, My Stroke of Insight is also just a great story.

michael logan: Test Your Brain

nospam@example.com (michael logan) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:37:58 -0400

Hello Cathy,

Loved your blog, and the Irish ancestry. We have traced our family back to Lurgan, a small town not far from Belfast, and perhaps even to Edinburgh. Small world, and have you tried the free assessment at Lumosity? How did it compare to Posit Science? Mike Logan

Terry Matlen: To-Do Tatoo

nospam@example.com (Terry Matlen) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:23:16 -0400

I know! I'm tempted to get it to see how well it works. I know a few people (ahem) who write grocery lists on their hands. : )

Terry

Marilyn bohn: To-Do Tatoo

nospam@example.com (Marilyn bohn) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:59:57 -0400

How fun is that? I never write on my skin, but I know many people who do.
Thanks for the laugh

Mike Logan: Lumosity Brain Fitness Program: Improve Attention, Memory and Cognition

nospam@example.com (Mike Logan) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 07:08:19 -0400

Hi Terry,

I am just beginning to use the Lumosity tools, and I have a bit of an ADD brain. If the stacks of papers in my office shrink, and I can remember where they are filed after that, we will know that Lumosity works. Mike Logan

Terry Matlen: Parental Guilt: When Playing with Your Kids is Too Boring

nospam@example.com (Terry Matlen) — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:29:41 -0400

Joni,
Glad the article helped. To this day, I can't- or barely can- play board games, card games, etc. Even most TV shows they like, bore me to death.

It also doesn't help that I have inattentive and my daughter is hyperactive/impulsive- not a good match at all.

Sounds like your kids are doing well, board games or not!

Terry

Joni: Parental Guilt: When Playing with Your Kids is Too Boring

nospam@example.com (Joni) — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:56:53 -0400

Amen to this. Thank you for sharing. My daughters are now 18 and 19 and as I "launch" them into the world, (on my worst days) I like to beat myself up about all the things I "didn't do" when they were younger. Board games were always a problem. I have ADD and my oldest daughter has ADHD. Frustration tolderance was always zip around the game board. I am glad someone else shares this issue! Joni

Mary Kay: Some kids ultra-sensitive to socks, shirt seams, tags

nospam@example.com (Mary Kay) — Fri, 23 May 2008 10:56:58 -0400

All of you have my sympathy! I had a daughter with the same problems that you mention. I taught Preschool and would be late in the mornings just because I couldn't satisfy my daughter with shoes and socks at 3,4, and 5 years old. Then around 6, I couldn't find pants to feel right. When we did find something that she would wear, she would wear it non stop! It was embarrassing and frustrating keeping something clean on hand. Her pants legs of the one and only pair of hot pink sweat pants had holes in them (when it wasn't in style) and wore them day in and day out. On vacation trips, we'd have to stop and buy new underwear because she would cry. She then would only wear dresses on into 8, 9 and 10 years old. Noone wore dresses! I remember sitting in the dressing room of stores and just crying that nothing would feel right. I found that J. Crew clothes felt ok and we just bought from them on line and the trying on clothes catastrophes had stopped for awhile until 6th grade when my daughter was ridiculed for wearing a dress her first day of school at a brand new school in a brand new state. Middle School is painful enough without having a sensitivity to clothes (such an important thing at that age) She hadn't worn pants in years and had to for the uniform. There was no way out
of it and we got some used uniforms that were well worn and soft and she wore them. Happy day, she could wear the same thing day in and day out without anyone realizing she didn't change clothes. But on dress down days, she still wore a uniform which was a no-no socially. Slowly, but surely she tried other things and by 9th grade she knew she just had to get a pair of jeans or she'd be out socially. How thrilled we were to see her in her first pair of jeans!
Today, I write one week after her prom. I cried thinking of the awful past of finding someting that felt right and seeing her in itchy gold tule. Tons and tons of itchy tule touching her body and no tears. Good Luck and thanks for this site for all in the future because I didn't know what it was, had I known it would have been easier.
Hopefully, your children will outgrow it too!

Sally McLahclan: Some kids ultra-sensitive to socks, shirt seams, tags

nospam@example.com (Sally McLahclan) — Wed, 21 May 2008 09:48:27 -0400

My 8 year old daughter has always had a problem with socks and other things like labels, seams, tops, trousers shoes and bedding and more. Getting dressed would send her into a rage and she would completely refuse to wear many items. This led to her missing out on all sorts of treats and outings as I presumed she was trying to control us. It was after reading this site a few weeks ago I have begun to understand what is going on. I am researching as much as I can into the subject and my approach is now completely different and hopefully my daughter will calm down and start to trust me again as some of her reactions may be beacuse she was being backed into a corner. Her explanations of why the clothes were 'not right' never made any sense, so it was difficult for me to understand until now. My daughter is also a bedwetter which we assumed was to do with the kidney problem she had but I now believe my be connected with this. Although she is ultra sensative with clothing etc she is quite robust in other ways and rarely complains of other pain of cuts and bruises which you would normally expect to hurt. This condition does not really seems to be recognised in the Uk and I am sure there must be other parents going through the same havoc at home and feeling a bit silly talking about it. Obviously there are times when a child is just being 'fussy' but this is different, Being forced to wear something that does not feel right can make them unable to concentrate at school, bad behaviour or just be grumpy and confrontational. I am just so pleased that this sight brought this to my atttention. I would really like to hear more from adults who suffered as a child to get more information as to what may help and if and when they grew out of it.