My therapist has suggested i get some under armour for my sensory seeking tendencies. has anyone had success with this? also, part of my sensory seeking is in my jaw muscles. im always chewing on hard foods but am wondering if theres something else i can chew on besides gum to get that input.
thanks

Hi - our OT suggested getting our boy a stretchy material t-shirt in a size too small to see if the pressure from something like a deep pressure or compression vest would help before buying something more expensive.

For the chewing thing - OT suggested he keep a tub of carrot sticks in the fridge so he gets the crunch as well as the cold sensation as feedback. The other thing is to get a chewy pencil top perhaps that you can bite on? My boy also loves the sour starburst sweets for the chewyness and the really strong tangy flavour, and skittles as well for the cruchy shell and chewy inside.
I guess other than that you could crunch ice cubes? Again a double hit of sensation.

Sorry cant be of much more help, am only just getting my head around the sensory diet for my son and as hes only 6 cant really tell us what he does and doesnt need. Hope you find some good answes though and something that works

I've gotten myself a compression shirt (because of this post actually) and it does help me some. My boyfriend laughs at me for wearing a compression shirt then wrapping up in a weighted blanket. I really like deep pressure.

It does far less than my blanket, but it does enough that I'll be able to keep myself able to self regulate longer, w hich for someone like me is huge. I'm looking into more deep pressure clothing too now.

For a female, a compression shirt just is so much more comfortable than any bras.

(03-12-2012, 09:46 PM)sunshine1985 Wrote: My therapist has suggested i get some under armour for my sensory seeking tendencies. has anyone had success with this? also, part of my sensory seeking is in my jaw muscles. im always chewing on hard foods but am wondering if theres something else i can chew on besides gum to get that input.
thanks

I gotta say - My 12 year old son - will wear almost nothing else. I never even made that connection!

I have an UA knock off that I have worn for a couple of years....got it for hiking and never really understood why I liked having it on so much until my therapist and I started talking about SPD for me. And for casual things it does work.....meaning situations that are going to be triggers for me, the UA shirt is a subtle way to feel compression and pressure. For bigger things, and right now, for my daily wear, I just bought a weighted work out vest. It holds 20lbs of weights, though I have lowered it to 12lbs to see how that works as the sensory overload starts to dissipate.

For chewing....I usually cycle through everything - gum, altoids, pens, pencils, fruit, my fingers, legos, ice, chips, whatever I can get. I don't have a good grip on this one yet.

Just an idea. Have you tried keeping a log of how you feel after you chew on each type of thing? Maybe it would help you figure out what works best for you.

For ladies, perhaps Spanx undergarments would be an alternative? They do provide serious compression to parts of the anatomy. Also, Target sells a less expensive, knock-off version of them.

For the oral issue- my son seems to do well with carrot sticks and Granny Smith Apples (tart and crisp). The OT also suggested a candy like Pop Rocks which provides a lot of oral stimulation. I prefer the carrots and apples because it takes a little while to eat them, so he can get more of the sensation.