Oh you know the saying "If I only knew then what I know now things would have been so much better", well, that is so true. Some days I wish I could go back to when my son was a newborn but have the knowledge I have now about SPD!
I look back to when he was this little, cuddly, sweet infant that wouldn't breast feed, would only drink a bottle with a number 3 nipple that we had to cut so the milk just fell into his mouth, and even as he got to the age where most newborns are sleeping through the night he was still waking up 2-3 times a night and staying up for an hour long each time. If I only knew these were small indicators that he potentially had SPD that would have been wonderful because I could have researched this and I would have known what to do for him to help him.
I would know that his hour long tantrums were a sign of over stimulation and that him being a "picky eater" wasn't really him being picky but that he didn't like certain smells, textures or tastes. I wish I knew that sometimes on car rides when I had the radio on or I was singing and he would throw massive fits until we got home that the sound of me singing and the sound of music sounded like nails on a chalkboard for him. Him not being a "self soother" was another sign of SPD and all I got from the pediatrician was "well, some babies don't self sooth, he might when he's a little older and he might not". UGH! I didn't get "well maybe this is something we should look at a little closer and make a journal of his pattern/habits and see if there is something else going on", nope didn't get that at all.
When he became a toddler I wish I knew that him being around a large number of people/kids was too overwhelming for him and therefore sent him into a tantrum was a sign of SPD. Or, him having a tantrum and destroying anything in his sight or biting himself when he was angry was another sign of SPD. I thought when he didn't want to touch things that made his hands dirty (shopping cart, money, anything out in public) that was just my own "germafobia" spilling over to him not that it could be a disorder of any kind other than a little of my OCD. I wish I knew him not wanting to wear clothes while at home or pj's for bed time was a sign of SPD, I just thought maybe he was being difficult. And when it came time for potty training and he refused to do it I just thought it was laziness not any kind of disorder.
So you see all of these things he did or didn't do all of his life were little signs of SPD but how was I to know! How is any parent to know this about their kids especially when you have the medical community just telling you "oh, that's just what babies do, or that's just one of your babies little quarks, or don't worry they'll grow out of it", and how are you suppose to know there could be a true problem when they don't grow out of it but you aren't getting any information from your doctor. We trust our doctors, that's why we go to them in the first place right because we trust them and their knowledge, they know more than us so they must be right.
Well, I'm not telling you not to trust your doctors but I am here to say GO WITH YOUR GUT! If you know something may not be right RAISE YOUR VOICE because that's all you child has is you kicking and screaming to help them. They can't tell us what's going on, they don't know how to communicate that to us yet but as their parents we know our kids inside and out and we know when something isn't right. We have the manual on our kids and how they operate not the doctors so always go with your gut feeling.
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