Sensory processing: bath time game changers
Our son has sensory processing disorder, and in addition to loud sounds, water on his face and neck was one of the hardest things for my son to handle. Before I knew anything about autism or sensory processing disorder, we just soldiered on, bathing him through the tears and screaming, wondering when will he ever get over this?
I don’t know why I thought doing baths the same way would ever yield a different result. I had learned in my teacher training that “kids do well when they can,” and when they can’t, it means that there is a strategy or skill that needs to be taught. Why didn’t I bring that into my home?
Once we learned about sensory processing disorder, we realized his suffering in the bath was real. It wasn’t defiance, it wasn’t disobedience, it wasn’t disrespect. He was having a really hard time.
We realized that it was water in his eyes, face and ears that were difficult for him. So we made four changes that totally changed the game.
A bath hat/visor. Friends of ours gifted us this bath hat for our son when they were visiting Japan, so I don’t know where to get this specific one. He wore it since he was maybe 8 months old, and it has stretched gradually to fit his 7-year-old head! I’ll refrain from recommending any specific bath hat or visor because I haven’t tried any of the ones that I see online. But it keeps water mostly out of the face and ears, though none of them seem perfect.
Bath mirror. I placed this at eye level so he could get that visual feedback that his face was okay. I strangely remember when I was first learning to bathe on my own that when I felt water on my face, it felt like my nose was bleeding, and it made me anxious every time. This would have helped me so much! I notice that when our son does get water on his face, the first thing he does is flash a look at the mirror before he wipes it away (#3!). Shower mirror on Amazon.
Towel within reach. We hung a small hand towel from the shower rod with a piece of twine, making sure that it was right within reach. This is so that he can wipe away any water on his own, and at his own speed and pressure.
Bath bombs and foaming soap. Getting kids to comply is such a hard and complicated job. But one strategy that seems to work most often is infusing play into whatever you’re doing. So we gave him two of these small Crayola bath bombs for each bath. He loved to see how the colors mixed, how they fizzed. The foaming soap is a great sensory experience, too. These gave him something fun to look forward to, and also something to focus on and play with during his bath. Bath bombs on Amazon. Foaming soap on Amazon.
Goggles. We use the goggles when he doesn’t feel like wearing the bath hat/visor. I thought about regular goggles, but I knew that the tightness was really going to bother him. So I got the goggles in the photo below because the rubber seal part was really wide and soft. When he wears these he feels invincible! Goggles on Amazon.
