July milestones

Second dental appointment
The boy had his follow-up appointment with his dentist, Dr Tong. My husband could not come with us because he cannot take a leave from work. I try to think that it's good to have a lot of people with us (in case we need to restrain him). Turns out, the boy was so well-behaved, I even had the chance to take photos.

The dental assistant puts on the sunglasses to shield his eyes from the strong light.

The 'powerful' Hello Kitty mirror is back. It helps ease the child to know what the dentist is exactly doing. Add a very calm and reassuring dentist, and we have a cooperative child.

Showing off his pearly whites.

The most wonderful news from the dentist is that he has no cavities. She just did some scaling and she demonstrated proper brushing to him. She also told us to mix some of our toothpaste with his kiddy toothpaste so that he will get used to the minty feel of normal toothpastes.

We are still having some challenges with the minty toothpaste. Too much minty sensation is painful for him. I have to be mindful of the amount I put in his toothbrush, I don't want to traumatize him. I'll see how it goes through the months, hopefully we will be able to eventually desensitize him.


First movie
The thing about autistic individuals is that most of them have sensory processing disorders, which means that they have difficulties taking in, processing  and responding to different sensory inputs from the environment. While some crave certain sensations, some are very sensitive to it. That explains why there are some kids who are 'obsessed' with rough objects (they crave for the rough sensation), while some kids cannot even take certain textures of fabric in their clothing.

The boy is sensitive to sound. He covers his ears when he hears the hand dryer, the drill or the vacuum cleaner. He used to be sensitive to the sound of a food processor, but now he's ok with it. Exposure to loud arcades helped desensitize him to certain loud sounds.

This month, he asked to watch Brave the movie. Brave is not showing yet, so we took him to watch Ice Age 4 instead. We were very wary and cautious during the first part of the movie. Good news is that he was able to sit through 80% of the movie. Fifteen minutes before the movie ended, he started feeling restless and he decided it was time to go. I'm not complaining. I am just happy because he managed to behave during the movie and did not cover his ears at all.

Looking forward to more milestones. Our efforts are working.