Hi,

I've just found this forum and wanted to say hi. My 4 year old son is being diagnosed with SPD, although I'm waiting on the final report to see which type, although I suspect his main classification will be sensory seeking. My husband and I are struggling to find treatment for him. My insurance won't cover any OT and while we can appeal, my insurance plan is changing on the first of the year (carrier will stay the same) so I'm confused as to whether I should appeal or wait for the new plan to start and begin the process all over again, but perhaps coverage would be ruled out because of the SPD being a pre-existing condition...any advice on which route to take would be appreciated!

Meanwhile we are pursuing treatment through our local public school system, although this could take awhile as I understand it. My son attends a preschool full time and I've been given notice from the school's director that he will be asked to leave if his aggression toward the other children doesn't improve and his potty training doesn't improve as well (he's been refusing to sit on the potty at all at school, and will barely do it at home). My husband recently started a temp job after being unemployed for 6 months, so the timing for my son to be unable to attend this school could not be worse (I work full time). And, to top it off, because of my husband's unemployment, we have absolutely no disposable income and can't pursue private OT on our own. I'm researching homeopathy remedies, but again, it's quite possible we won't be able to afford it.

I'm grateful to have found this support group. I look forward to getting to know all of you.

Best,
Adrienne

I am sitting here with a sleeping baby on my lap so forgive any typos but I couldn't read without replying. Sounds so stressful! My DD is also 4. She is sensory seeking for tactile things and avoiding for sounds and smells and unexpected touch, and potty stuff has been a nightmare for us as well. We have done a lot of different things with regards to treatment but the one that made the biggest impact was changing her diet to casein, gluten, and soy free. This would cost you a bit more in groceries but wouldn't be so overwhelming as trying to pay out of pocket for OT and such. The most immediate help with this was aggression, she was hitting and biting and crashing into everyone all the time and now it only occurs very, very rarely. As far as homeopathic remedies, Stramonium helped us some, it's not expensive but it's hard to find.

If you go from one insurance plan right to the other, there should be no prexisting condition clause in effect. Hopefully your next one will offer some coverage.

(11-16-2010, 03:53 PM)Adrienne Wrote: Hi,

I've just found this forum and wanted to say hi. My 4 year old son is being diagnosed with SPD, although I'm waiting on the final report to see which type, although I suspect his main classification will be sensory seeking. My husband and I are struggling to find treatment for him. My insurance won't cover any OT and while we can appeal, my insurance plan is changing on the first of the year (carrier will stay the same) so I'm confused as to whether I should appeal or wait for the new plan to start and begin the process all over again, but perhaps coverage would be ruled out because of the SPD being a pre-existing condition...any advice on which route to take would be appreciated!

Meanwhile we are pursuing treatment through our local public school system, although this could take awhile as I understand it. My son attends a preschool full time and I've been given notice from the school's director that he will be asked to leave if his aggression toward the other children doesn't improve and his potty training doesn't improve as well (he's been refusing to sit on the potty at all at school, and will barely do it at home). My husband recently started a temp job after being unemployed for 6 months, so the timing for my son to be unable to attend this school could not be worse (I work full time). And, to top it off, because of my husband's unemployment, we have absolutely no disposable income and can't pursue private OT on our own. I'm researching homeopathy remedies, but again, it's quite possible we won't be able to afford it.

I'm grateful to have found this support group. I look forward to getting to know all of you.

Best,
Adrienne

Hi Angela and thanks so much for your response. We're in the process of phasing out gluten and I was thinking casein might be a good idea as well. Soy, too? Yikes, that leaves a pretty restrictive diet, but if it makes the difference we need so Seth can stay in preschool, then we'll need to give it a go. I've started some gluten-free baking to wean Seth off of the wheat products he eats day in and day out. He's such a picky eater, though. It will be an interesting process, that's for sure.

Thanks again for your feedback.
~ Adrienne

We had a to phase out soy too, which once I phased out casein and gluten the soy reaction was really obvious. Not everyone does though. We also had to go food coloring free but that reaction also was so obvious that we did it a long time before everything else. Hopefully your DS won't need as many restrictions, but even if the does it's good to take it one step at a time so you don't get too stressed and overwhelmed. I will say Pamela's bread mix, ordered in bulk from Amazon once we tried it at Whole Foods, is one of the best things that has happended to our GF cooking. We use it for pizza crust, pie crust, and bread. Udi's bread is also good, you can find it at Whole Foods and we buy it at Wegmans but they are only in NY and VA I think. There is this one brand of GF pasta that is in shapes, bicycles, animals ect is a big hit, I am forgetting the brand right now, it's good for making mac and cheese or with sauce (we use Diaya cheese for mac and cheese since we are casein free too) or my DD likes it just with olive oil and salt. GF products vary wildly in terms of taste and texture so there is some experimenting needed. There is a good book: The Kid Friendly ADHD and Autism Cookbook that we got off of Amazon that I really like. The first section explains special diets and the second half is a recipe book. I also got her a laptop lunch box so she has her own special way to have her safe foods with her when we go places.

Thanks again - I'll look into that book.