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Coagulation Breakdown
The other night, Grant cut his foot pretty good, a nice gash that was just begging to be cleaned up and covered up with a band-aid.
Uh, not so fast.
Grant is averse to band-aids. No, averse is much too nice. Terrified? Stricken? And it's really not just band-aids, it's any sticker or unexpected covering of the skin. But that night, he needed one. As soon as I saw the cut, I knew were in for a stand-off. My first mistake was trying one at all, I figured it had been at least a year since we tried so maybe he's softened his stance a little. See that perforation of my ear drum? There's your stance...
I tried a wet cloth, but he would have none of it. Screaming. Crying. Terror. How do you keep blood from getting everywhere when you can't cover the cut? I still don't know, but after a couple of "kiss the boo boos", some quick dabs of the cloth, and more of just my hand covering his foot - it stopped. He fell asleep after wearing himself out from the crying. Fortunately, the clotting has held up and he has not re-opened it.
Not long after, it struck me that he has not had a band-aid in at least 5 years. How is that possible!? Owen goes through about 100 a month. We all need one at some point, right? But 5 years!? What will we do when he finally gives in to the inevitable and really opens one up? I think we better start preparing for that - any and all ideas are welcome...
3 comments:
Yeah, not sure I have too many great ideas. We are in a similar situation. JP hates them as well.
He didn't like stickers either. And of course, teachers are always trying to use stickers as reinforcers.
After our last bout with a band aid, I tried to desensitize him by sticking them on his shirt only to have them promptly removed. We tried putting them on his teddy bear. Nope.
So I focused my effort on stickers. We bought his favorites and started by just sticking them on paper. Then eventually his shirt. He still won't tolerate them on his skin but now proudly accepts them on his shirt.
So we've made some progress this way but not on band aids. I am afraid that we would be in much of the same situation.
Good luck!
Wow, that must have been scary! Samuel doesn't particularly care for them either. He had one put on when he had his IV for his root canal surgery this past fall. Getting that off was a nightmare!
As far as ideas, I bet you've already tried this, have you tried using bandaids with characters on them? We've had better luck when we tell Samuel "look, a Dora bandaid!" Or how about a social story? Maybe talk about them in a social story emphasizing how important they are to "get better," when he is not injured and in a heightened state of fear? Maybe you could talk about other health issues in the same social story... washing hands, brushing teeth..?
Good luck!
thanks for the great comments, mwam and laa. We had tried character band-aids in the past, but it has been a long time and he may very well respond to them now. I wonder if we can find Teletubby band-aids?
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