30 SPD Facts in 30 Days -- Fact #13

Sensory Processing Disorder can also affect our interoceptive senses, or our body’s ability to interpret and regulate normal functions like temperature, respiration, heart rate, arousal (sleep), mood, elimination, hunger and thirst.

This is definitely true for Josiah!  I can remember several times as a baby that he would have very high unexplained fevers -- he'd have no other symptoms aside from a fever of 104.  He was in a good mood, acting normally, even screening normally on blood and urine tests -- just running hot :)  As a toddler and preschooler, he would often wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat from his body cooling down at night and then overcompensating to heat himself back up -- by the time his body finally realized he was warm, he was already too hot and then would perspire like crazy to cool down, only to start the cycle over again.  We seem to have finally figured out just the right combination of pajamas, weighted blanket and room temp and havne't had much trouble with this lately.  That doesn't mean he never sweats at night (he does sometimes, though not as badly) nor does it mean he sleeps through the night (he doesn't, ever) but at least it isn't the overheated sweating that is waking him.

We have yet to figure out a good solution to his night waking.  We've tried dozens of things: letting him sleep in our bed, not letting him sleep in our bed, feeding him protein before bed, feeding him carbs before bed, not feeding him before bed, staying with him while he falls asleep, not staying with him while he falls asleep, lights on, lights off, lights dim, no blankets, heavy blankets, even melatonin.  While we have had some success with some of the strategies keeping him asleep longer before he wakes, he still does wake up every night.  He'll be six at the end of November and I can count on my hands the number of nights in his life that he slept completely through.

I've posted before about potty training issues so suffice it to say here that he has certainly struggled with that, too!  We're getting closer and closer all the time, but I still wouldn't consider him fully potty trained, and he's definitely not dry at night.  All in good time, I suppose.

Don't forget to stop by Hartley's Life with 3 Boys to read 30 Stories in 30 Days, guest blogs from 30 different families about their experiences with an SPD child.