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35 Comments Posted on February 11, 2019February 12, 2019 Autism

Autism and Challenging Behaviour Part Seven – How to prevent a child on the autism spectrum from taking their clothes off. Some great tips!

Autism and Challenging Behavior

As regular readers of AutismTalk and this blog know we are very interested in discussing how people with autism and ASD and their caregivers have managed to deal with the myriad of social situations which can be generated by the interaction of autistic people with the world.

One of those issues which frequently comes up is that of taking off clothes in unsuitable places. Indeed there is quite a famous autism meme on the internet which reminds its readers “Not to be surprised if someone appears in the nude in this house” or words to that effect.

Our son, I’ll be honest, while happy to wear clothes does like taking them off for serious activities like playing on the iPad or watching science fiction on the TV. It normally takes him around 30 minutes before he has removed at least one garment after returning from school or a trip at the weekend.

That being said he never takes his clothes off at school unlike a number of his fellow students, according to the teachers at his unit . Indeed over the last few weeks he has on a couple of occasions asked if we could put some back on.

I’d say it is for John a minor issue but for others this is very much not the case. Indeed most people who see him after stripping know him well and are relaxed about it. It would be great if we could hear from others about their experiences in this area. It would be useful if you could think in terms of some of the following questions:-

a) Do you have a problem with a child with autism taking off their clothes?

b) Do you have a feel for what triggers this kind of behaviour and does it have any specific places where it manifests itself?

c) How did you overcome it?

d) What one piece of advice would you give to other parents and caregivers in such a situation?

These questions are only a guide. Please feel free to use the comments boxes below to add anything you think may be of interest on the subject to our readers.

Nana62	How do you deal with a child with autism wanting to run naked as there is two children in the home which are girls. Will this become a bigger problem as the kids get older?Right now girl age 9, girl age 4, autistic boy age 6
Athansmom	My 14 year old son has been stripping down naked outside and in the garage. Tonight he snuck out at 10 pm, stripped down and waded through the drainage ditches behind the house and behind the neighbors house. He said his head told him to go on a Safari adventure???? I would never go in those ditches in the daylight with clothes and shoes never mind butt naked.
teenaok45	My 14 year strips down to nothing when she is angry or wanting something. She will take off her shirt if she is hungry or wants something done right NOW. The issue that our family struggles with is that she wants everyone else’s cloths. She wants to wear some of the cloths…..but most of the time it is only to carry around. Our struggle with clothing every where all the time is a battle that I would like to WIN. I realize that the fact that she takes off her clothing to get her point across should have been addressed when she was much younger. Yet, I am the step mom. Her mother would always give her what she wanted to get her clothing back on. As we ignore her behavior she will finally start getting dressed again. Yet, there are times when she is completely passionate about something and will start banging her head or running down the road. AT this point I will give her what she is wanting. This is the first forum I have seen with even a discussion on this issue. I would like to find any one who has had this same issue??? I am wondering if there are any other suggestion out there. We have purchased weighted blankets / lap pads. I will even heat them up in the dryer. WE are only a week into this trial period. I am having to hide/lock up every ones clothing to keep her from gathering and carrying…..Thank you for any shares.
Tabbitha14	Keepemon.com a site we have created with a bodysuit that has helped our son carter keep his clothes on
ColtonsMomma	My son is eight and a well known stripper in this area of Altoona PA my cure to limit this he doesn’t do it as often anymore I take and physically make him put the clothes back on himself as soon as he takes them off or when I see it coming He loves those silk basketball shorts boys wear so when he gets home he’ ll bring me a pair off his bed I try to understand he feels better when he is in loose clothes he won’t wear blue jeans or layers
Bones235	autistic5468 my son doesn’t want to wear anything… used to have to wait for him to fall asleep in order to get a diaper on him so he wouldn’t wet the bed. only thing we could do is let him go and limit his water intake before bed and make sure he goes potty before falling asleep.
MylaBides	my 11 year old daughter who has autism and also profoundly deaf, removes her pants and diaper at times. sometimes while sleeping. so we’d wake up and she’s wet the bed. initially, when she was 9-10 yrs old, i got her swim suits over her diaper and under her clothes. it is just hard to dress her up because of the many layers, but she got used to it and we eventually stopped putting it on her. now, the behaviour is back and the swim suits are too small to fit her. so instead of getting her bigger swimsuits, we got her pants with a string around the waist that we can tighten in a ribbon to prevent her pulling them down. and a onesies which i hope she will not outgrow anymore. i would recommend consistency when it comes to unacceptable behaviour. if i see her doing it, i pull them back up right away. even when she’s at home or in the privacy of her room.
ShannonKrohn	autistic5468 I had a lot of trouble with my ASD son who is 3 now keeping his diaper on when he was younger , he would pull it off and waist so many diapers like that , I had to keep onesies on him for as long as i could and was lucky enough to find some larger ones , then i had to keep the zip up footie PJ’s on him until he figured out how to unzip them , i heard some people say you can cut the feet off and turn them backwards and that helps keep it on and the diaper , i also heard a few different people speak of duct tape around the waistline of the diapers lightly to prevent the child from pulling the tabs off
autistic5468	Does anyone have an Autistic child that will not keep his/her diaper on. I have an Autistic child that will not keep his diaper on for nothing.
dmwarwick	My 16 year old son always likes to remove his clothes when he goes swimming in the pool. Now, this wasn’t sure a big problem when he was 5 yrs old, but now that he’s hit puberty, it’s an entirely different story! My sister is the only one that has a pool and so when she has parties at her house, my son will undoubtely want to swim and within minutes, the shorts are being flung out of the pool! His other cousins are sometimes lifesavers and will put his shorts back on his (under the water), because he always seems to wait until he’s in the deep end to take off his shorts (where I can’t get to him). I think he associates the pool water as the same as taking a “bath”. He also likes to swim naked, which maybe that is not so abnormal, but you think about how it will affect him when he’s older and not able to live at home anymore (with Mom and Dad). Does anyone else have problems with their child swimming or sleeping naked? Not sure how common this is. Thanks!
Terry Clark	passionateapanda I could not have said it better!!!!
Terry Clark	mysonmyworld This is a great idea and I will try to lay out his clothes before he gets to the point of stripping . At this point I will try any thing to keep him dressed. I am so scared to send him any where because in the end result some one will eventually call social service and give an opinion of some thing they know nothing about. I find that if people don’t know what is possible with an autistic child unless they have some education on the matter. Thank you for your input and your involvement on this site.
beaniebikerbabe	mysonmyworld same here although now he is older (13) he is not runing about naked, but is in his pj’s straight away from school and stays in them as long as he can, if we travel any distance he wants to be in pjama bottoms only and i am fine with this so long as he is covering his mondesty
graycelikerain	My son, 9 yo Aspie, only has this issue when he goes to the bathroom. I would hear him screaming and yelling from the bathroom because he couldn’t get his clothes off fast enough and apparently needed to REALLY go. (He also had other “odd” bathroom behaviors). He is now 9 and he still comes out of the restroom with his shorts on backwards and shirt inside out (which is how I know he still strips to go to the restroom). As a baby, before we knew anything, he would fuss and fuss unless we took his pants off. It was his diaper as well, back when they used plastic tabs vs the now fabric tabs. He was fine with shirts. Sensory was what we were always told, back when he was four. However, now that he’s 9, I’ve asked him why he takes all of his clothes off when he goes to the bathroom (even in a public restroom – which he used to REFUSE to use anyones restroom but our own, in our house), his response, “I don’t know…I just do”.
mysonmyworld	My son dose the same thing if people dont know anything about autistic behavior then they need to mind their own business
mysonmyworld	As soon as my 10yr old autistic son walks in the front door he is stripping his clothes off. He hates wearing anything but basketball shorts and a big tee shirt So b4 i even go pick him up from the bus stop I set out a tee shirt and a pair of basketball shorts cause he wears a uniform to school. It helps to lay the clothes out b4 my son gets home that way when he gets home and starts stripping i can point and tell him ok theres your conffy clothes and he is not just walking around in his underware
tifleah	It is probably sensory related. Have you noticed certain materials it is worse with to stick with only buying certain material, or remove all tags. My kids both do this at home. One is growing out of it, not as bad as he was, and one still does but not in public.
passionateapanda	My 6yo autistic son does this frequently at home or grandmas where he feels comfortable. I personally have no issue with this behavior but my family doesn’t seem to be as accepting of this. I have recently had a social worker come to the home and ask “accusations are that you allow your son to run around naked is this true? ” I answer in fact he does this is his house and if he doesn’t want to wear clothes what’s the problem? I’m tired of other uneducated people making assumptions that because my child is naked there is a bigger issues there is and it’s their stupidity. He did however undress himself at school but he stopped doing that about 3 months ago. The second he comes home from school he takes them all off and runs threw the house FREE!
teenagerwithautistim	I’m Autistic and this used to be a real issue for me personally – quite dangerously so-. I just very commonly didn’t understand what the issue was with it and it was by being discouraged from doing it is what stopped me doing it and eventually the situation fixed itself. I don’t personally advocate it but slapping me was what worked and kept me safe in public, I didn’t want to do it after that and it was embarrassing to be hit and I didn’t like being hit. If you could find a suitable deterrent for your situations, I’m sure that would work.
Terry Clark	klcooks Thank you for your reply and any advice is well taken. We have been up and down with Johnathan and he is aware some times ans others not. We have had some extremely embarrassing moments and some that have angered us to the point were we sounded off to the people who were so rude and uncaring to our grand son. We will always be aware of some one who will belittle children that are challenged when it comes to every day advantages and down rite disrespectful. We will embrace your ideas and put them to the test Thank you again for your thoughts and cares Terry Clark .
klcooks	My son Chase has always been a “flasher” of sorts but as in everything, I’m learning he requires routine. At home, I allow him to stay nude for about 5 minutes and then we put on his pajamas or a comfortable shirt with shorts. He used to do it mainly in the car but now he only takes off his socks and shoes. It’s been trial and error but I think the key is to not get frustrated. I think Chase picked up on our embarassment and frustration at times and it only made it worse. I will continue to train him as to what is appropriate so it can be routine. Keep praying not only for our children but for the strength, courage and wisdom to care for them while we wait on real medical solutions.
Harmony6	This behavior only started recently (past 2 months) in my 9 y/o ASD son. He too, starts the strip upon arriving home from school, typically with his shirt and socks, but is often totally in the nude in his room when playing his iPad or on the family laptop. On occasion he will appear downstairs to watch TV naked much to the dismay of his sisters. He used to be very modest and now is unfazed. I gently remind him that not everyone is impressed or appreciates all of his body parts and since some are dirtier than others because they aren’t washed as often, perhaps they could be covered when using common areas and provided him a robe….We’ll see what happens!
Terry Clark	I always have problems with him and clothes and it seems like the only time he will get dressed is if we are going to go out side and if it is nice he wants to undress.
LalaliciouzArciga	Iam a motheof a 4 year diagnosed with autism and I have zthe same issues regarding the clothes matter he also don’t like socksnor shoes
Terry Clark	I have not figured out why Johnathan takes his clothes off and I don’t know if I ever will and it has become a big big issue for us to keep him in clothes. We went to McDonalds play land and Jonathan took his clothes off in the slide and while we were trying to get his clothes on the manager approached us and very sarcastically asked if we was planning on dressing our son. and it was then that i realized that only a few people would understand what autism is and my Johnathan would always need some one to defend him as to the fact he cant talk or work out problems that are essential to functioning in every day living. and when it comes to people being cruel and demeaning to him he would not know that he was being attacked because of his Autism. Johnathan is very loving and dont have a violent bone in his body and when it comes to pain he does not react to pain in any way we would . I am fifty years old and have custody of my five year old grand son and my greatest fear is that I am going to get to old to take care of him when he is older . Johnathan does not have any one else to step up and take over the responsibility of guardian. I find every day I am living life in desperation to find away to make sure he will be loved and not abused when I am gone.and that is the worst thing I could live with.
FamWallman	My son also feels warm or egen hot most of the time. I would like to know if anyone knows if there are any theories why they feel hot. Does it have anything to do with metabolism, nutrition, inflammatory, or something else?
autumnjoy79	My daughter used to strip when she was angry, it didn’t matter where she was at. She has since outgrown that stage. The only thing she does everyday is change her clothes back into pajamas as soon as she gets home from school everyday.
VickiDennison	I’m wondering if it has something to do with feeling safe and secure at home and stripping outside or at school could be their way of telling us they don’t feel secure and want to go home? I know my son doesn’t like trousers with buttons and certain tops. He also hates wearing socks and they are the 1st things to be removed as soon as we walk thru the door
RosieMarie	My son does this and I never linked it to the autism or the sensory issues. He only does it at home in the afternoon. It usually starts with his left sock. about an hour or two later the pants will follow. Next would be his shirt. Last is the other sock.
Trixie Ong

Leave a comment Posted on November 15, 2014November 13, 2014 Healthcare and technology, Patient Talk

Getting better healthcare from technology. How a neonatal department is using video calling software for mothers who are too unwell to visit

Healthcare and technology

As regular readers of this blog know I’m more than a bit of a fan of the application of technology to healthcare. In particular its usage in the social and communication areas of medicine.

So I was deleighted to read the following story. Leicester Hospitals’ neonatal unit have bought themselves a load of iPads so that see their baby using video calling software when they are too unwell to visit the unit or have been transferred to another hospital.

Simple but brilliant.

Just a useful bit of kit can really improve the lives of both mothers and , of course, the children.

Chloe Denton found out while pregnant that her baby was suffering from intrauterine growth restriction. This is a condition whereby the baby grows poorly while in the mother’s womb. Chloe was closely monitored and it was decided to induce the pregnancy at 36 weeks.

Two weeks before this everything changed. Chloe started fitting, so it was decided to carry out an emergency C-section the next day.

Denton explains: “It was an extremely traumatic time and after a quick glimpse of my little boy, Oliver, he was whisked away to the neonatal unit. I felt lost and desperate to see him.”

Nurses on the ward where Denton was recovering gave her an iPad so she could see Oliver while she was unable to walk to the neonatal unit herself.

“I got to see Oliver for the first time and I was elated. Just seeing him happy and settled gave me immense comfort. I can’t thank the staff in the neonatal unit enough for letting me experience such an amazing thing with my son. The first few hours are so important for bonding and that was all I wanted with Oliver.” she said.

Marie Hubbard, neonatal research nurse for Leicester’s Hospitals said: “It is fantastic that staff are already starting to see the benefits of these iPads. We are very grateful to Leicester Hospitals Charity and the Central Newborn Network project for enabling us to buy them and for IM&T for making it happen.”

15 Comments Posted on February 13, 2014April 24, 2017 Autism, Patient Talk

Autism and Challenging Behaviour Part Five- Getting a Haircut

Autism and haircuts

Now when I was my son’s age I have to admit that I hated getting my hair cut. I think it was the boredom of waiting so long for the barber to get round to me that did it.

But with our son John this is not the case at all. He hates having a haircut and when I mean hate I really do mean hate. So much so on one of his first outing to my mother’s hairdresser the people from the shop next door came over to see if there was a problem. So meltdowns were the order of the day. You can find some great tips for dealing with meltdowns in the comments section of one of our older blog posts here https://patienttalk.org/?p=2349. Why? Well in John’s case he has sensory processing disorder which means the feeling of having his hair cut is, to him, one of massive overload of the senses.

Over the years we tried various strategies. These included cutting his hair at home by a professional hairdresser who is also a friend. The poor woman ended up cutting her hand with her rather sharp scissors during the haircut as John attempted to do a runner! We also went to a specialist autism hairdresser. The problem was that she was only available during the hours that my wife and I were at work. Even if we could have made it would have taken around an hour’s journey to get to the venue.

So how did we solve the problem? Well actually luck rather than judgement. He rather desperately

Autism and haircuts

needed his hair cut and our then nanny Willow offered to take him. It turned out that she had spotted a local barbers shop which she thought could help.

I had a haircut there yesterday so I thought I would take the opportunity to show what the big draw for Willow was in two pictures illustrating the blog. As you can see they have a car. One John could sit in. And you can see the TV as well – offering a section of the finest space-related cartoons that humans can make. Not just that – in his hand was Willow’s iPhone with an exciting game of “Angry Birds” on the go. Did it work?
Well more or less. His hair got cut and no one went to hospital. But most importantly he started to calm down when his hair was being cut. So yes it is a rather incremental thing but it worked for us.

In fact these days he is happy to grasp an iPad and have his head clippered as long as it takes less than five minutes.

That’s how we did it. How about you? One of the objectives of blog posts like this is to get other members of the autism community to share their experiences with others. It would be great if you could share your story about getting haircuts either for yourself or your loved one. Please feel free to use the comments box below to share.

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You might like to think in terms of the following questions:-

a) Did you have particular problems with haircuts?

b) What was the root cause of the problems?

c)What techniques did you use to overcome the problem and end it with a cut which worked?

d) What advice would you give to a parent about to embark on the hair cutting autism journey?

And finally there is another option. Don’t bother. One of the boys in John’s class (they all have ASD) just has long hair. It’s clean and looks great. Albeit a bit heavy mental fan circa 1980. So that may prove the best way out.

Kylesmum	My 5 year old will have a meltdown with every haircut but the funny thing is that he will keep still … it’s so hard for me to watch cause what we do is that my husband will cut his hair with the clippers whist my son is sitting in the bath (empty of course) and he puts up with with about 10-15 mind of very emotional crying, trembling and sweating but once he is done he hits the off button on the machine and my son will start so sing and laughing with relief. We have tried to put him in the empty bath with lots of thing to try to distract him but nothing seems to work e.g. iPad, favourite toys, turned the bath into a ball park nothing seems to calm him but as I said the only good thing is that he wount fight it and he can get his hair done quickly
Kylesmum	My 5 year old will have a meltdown with every haircut but the funny thing is that he will keep still … it’s so hard for me to watch cause what we do is that my husband will cut his hair with the clippers whist my son is sitting in the bath (empty of course) and he puts up with with about 10-15 mind of very emotional crying, trembling and sweating but once he is done he hits the off button on the machine and my son will start so sing and laughing with relief. We have tried to put him in the empty bath with lots of thing to try to distract him but nothing seems to work e.g. iPad, favourite toys, turned the bath into a ball park nothing seems to calm him but as I said the only good thing is that he wount fight it and he can get his hair done quickly .
MylaBides	my husband and i used to wait until my daughter was asleep before we cut her hair. that was until she was 8-9. then we bought clippers which we first used on my younger son while she watched. when it was her turn, she didn’t protest. maybe because she saw my son was alright. or maybe because she was playing around the playground, walking around while my husband followed her around. of course he had to use rechargeable clippers. the wire simply will not cut it–pardon the pun!
Timingreenville	At that age he would sit in my, his dad’s, lap.
Timingreenville	We were very concerned with taking our 16 year old. I spoke to Christian at Great Clips as she cut my hair. She said to bring him in and they would work with in. A big issue with us is getting him in and out of the car. Transitions can be very hard for him. This time he sat through and shocked my wife and I. Then he got up and had to turn off the lights. I tried to prevent but he had to do it. Then he walked right out like no big deal. Now with summer we will buzz him outside on the deck. He has gotten better about getting around his ears. It tickles.
SarahMKInnes	My (almost) 7yr old (ASD and ADHD) just had his hair cut today. He will only have it cut at Sharkey’s (kids haircutting place) and will only allow the hairdresser use scissors – NO clippers whatsoever. Today there was a minor meltdown when he found out that their Super Mario game had worn out and they threw it out (he is obsessed with Super Mario) but once we got over that he was a bit squirmy but made out ok. I find what helps is if the hairdresser warns him beforehand (eg. “I’m going to spray some more water now”). We also try to make sure it is the same person every time that cuts his hair.
SneakyMumInOmaha	Read SneakyMumInOmaha
SneakyMumInOmaha	My 5yr old screams bloody murder everytime we try to cut his hair…except for that time when he woke up with a buzz cut. Oh yes I did. The trick is to turn the clippers on from a distance and then walk toward him. They’re pretty loud when you fire them up. And make sure your clippers are well oiled so they don’t pull his hair. You don’t want him waking up with a partial buzz-cut. And you’ll want to lay a towel down for easy cleanup and an itchless night. Good luck 🙂
sneedley13	Similar to PeterKijek below , our biggest problem was getting Connor to sit still in the chair. He also like to look around and see what everyone is doing. He now plays with the iPad/iPhone when he’s in the chair. We have found that he is much better when his Dad takes him rather than me, usually because he will get his hair cut at the same time (first) so Connor can see it, although we still have problems around the ears, either with the clippers or the scissors!
marionburns	TiffanyIvison https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=106711162797745&ref=ts&fref=ts get in touch and i will talk you through some tips .
TiffanyIvison	I have not found a way to make it work yet and am open to suggestions! My son is almost 2 and was just diagnosed with Autism, we already knew he had SPD. He was born with a lot of hair so we have had to visit the hair dressers many times and it gets worse with each visit. We are due for another cut soon and I have anxiety just thinking about it.
EricaPurtell	I’ve found that if my Partner (his father) gets his hair cut first with my son watching we’re all good until we get to trimming around the ears- that’s the only thing we have a problem with….
lifeisarainbowmummy	My son is actually sensory seeking at times and he loved my hairdresser who offered head massages even as a baby so he looked forward to getting his hair cut. We had major issues when my hairdresser went on maternity leave but we managed to convince him to let my new hairdresser cut his hair. One interesting thing we have found is that our son dislikes parting with any part of himself, after every haircut he has had, he has got down on the floor and picked up every last hair… thankfully he has the angelic looks to get away with it and hairdressers happily provide him with a bag – and we have a money bag full of hair for every single haircut he has had in the last 6 years! We even have a little tub of nail clippings (bag over head) as he would not let me clip his nails which he despises unless he could keep them. He was also terrified of losing his first tooth and sobbed for an hour when he realised his tooth was wobbling as he was terrified the tooth fairy would take it from him. We had to promise he could keep it in his sterling silver my first tooth box and wrote to the tooth fairy to ask if he could keep it. He still got a pound and a very reassuring letter from the tooth fairy!
marybethpalo	I too had the same problems – what I had discovered was that my son not only learned from video but also we could film future events like a hair cut and the anxiety basically disappeared. So – I used video modeling for years to teach and to familiarize my son with situations. Seeing a man getting his hair cut up close and being able to watch it over and over seemed to do the trick. We had been cutting his hair at home, in the bath tub, on the swing – you name it we had tried it!
PeteKijek	Actually, I have had a similar experience with my autistic son. His main problem was not sitting still in the barbers chair, and he constantly looks round to see what the barber is doing! As you’ve mentioned, the TV nearby is a great distraction for him, (he’s a bit too big and too old for a car chair now 😉 ) but he also enjoys looking in the mirror at what the person is doing. I think he never quite understood how what was happening in the mirror was what was happening to the back of his head!