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Ideas for Helping Son with Hygiene
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<blockquote data-quote="susiestar" data-source="post: 706797" data-attributes="member: 1233"><p>My son had HORRIBLE hygiene. It is one of the things that the psychiatric hospital he stayed in when he was 12 worked on. They had a list of steps for taking a shower. Every single step from taking off your shirt and turning on the water to turning off the water and drying off and putting your shirt back on. The kids had to do every step or they had to start at the beginning and do it all over again. One staff member watched the patient and another watched the staff member from the hallway to make sure the staff never touched the patient or did anything inappropriate. The patient wore a swimsuit during these lessons to protect modesty.</p><p></p><p>One day my son even broke their record by having to start over 10 times. I had to laugh as I read that in the files I got after he was released. It worked though, he never fought us that hard over getting clean again. I have a very strong sense of smell and having someone very stinky around me really bothers me, in fact it often gives me a migraine. So constantly fighting to get Wiz clean was not fun. </p><p></p><p>Your son may not like those 'Men's' products. Honestly, they smell atrocious to me. Many of them are so strongly scented that they are worse than not bathing. He may actually prefer an unscented soap or even a baby soap or lavendar or other natural scented soap. My brother uses Dr Bronner's Peppermint Soap on everything in his home. He dilutes it and a bottle lasts a very long time. It is a natural castile soap and is very gentle.</p><p></p><p>Your son may also have sensory issues with some aspect of bathing. It may be that the feel of the liquid soaps bothers him, they feel slimy or slippery to him and this feels somehow wrong or bad to him. This is not at all uncommon. I once was in an Autism Parents Group and more than half of the parents had children with problems with bathing that were directly due to some sensory issue with soap. One father had a 30 year old daughter in a supported living situation who came home 3 days a week to visit and he washed her hair for her on those visits because she just could not handle the feel of the shampoo. He said it was a little thing for him and a big thing for her. It made her feel pretty and clean and took about ten minutes. I am NOT saying to wash his hair for him. I am saying to work to figure out what his problem with using soap is and then overcome it.</p><p></p><p>My mom has a saying "Physical solutions to physical problems". Sometimes we see a problem and don't realize that it is a physical problem. Like the bad hygiene might be a physical problem that your son has with the feel or smell of the soap. You could get him a shampoo that comes in a bar form if the liquid shampoo just feels awful to him. Or get one with no odor or low odor rather than Axe or the Mens products. Natural groceries like Sprouts often have unscented products - I knows because I am so highly sensitive to scent that if we don't use unscented products I get migraines. It is hard to find unscented things at some stores.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="susiestar, post: 706797, member: 1233"] My son had HORRIBLE hygiene. It is one of the things that the psychiatric hospital he stayed in when he was 12 worked on. They had a list of steps for taking a shower. Every single step from taking off your shirt and turning on the water to turning off the water and drying off and putting your shirt back on. The kids had to do every step or they had to start at the beginning and do it all over again. One staff member watched the patient and another watched the staff member from the hallway to make sure the staff never touched the patient or did anything inappropriate. The patient wore a swimsuit during these lessons to protect modesty. One day my son even broke their record by having to start over 10 times. I had to laugh as I read that in the files I got after he was released. It worked though, he never fought us that hard over getting clean again. I have a very strong sense of smell and having someone very stinky around me really bothers me, in fact it often gives me a migraine. So constantly fighting to get Wiz clean was not fun. Your son may not like those 'Men's' products. Honestly, they smell atrocious to me. Many of them are so strongly scented that they are worse than not bathing. He may actually prefer an unscented soap or even a baby soap or lavendar or other natural scented soap. My brother uses Dr Bronner's Peppermint Soap on everything in his home. He dilutes it and a bottle lasts a very long time. It is a natural castile soap and is very gentle. Your son may also have sensory issues with some aspect of bathing. It may be that the feel of the liquid soaps bothers him, they feel slimy or slippery to him and this feels somehow wrong or bad to him. This is not at all uncommon. I once was in an Autism Parents Group and more than half of the parents had children with problems with bathing that were directly due to some sensory issue with soap. One father had a 30 year old daughter in a supported living situation who came home 3 days a week to visit and he washed her hair for her on those visits because she just could not handle the feel of the shampoo. He said it was a little thing for him and a big thing for her. It made her feel pretty and clean and took about ten minutes. I am NOT saying to wash his hair for him. I am saying to work to figure out what his problem with using soap is and then overcome it. My mom has a saying "Physical solutions to physical problems". Sometimes we see a problem and don't realize that it is a physical problem. Like the bad hygiene might be a physical problem that your son has with the feel or smell of the soap. You could get him a shampoo that comes in a bar form if the liquid shampoo just feels awful to him. Or get one with no odor or low odor rather than Axe or the Mens products. Natural groceries like Sprouts often have unscented products - I knows because I am so highly sensitive to scent that if we don't use unscented products I get migraines. It is hard to find unscented things at some stores. [/QUOTE]
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