Treating Children with Sensory needs

Written By Maggie Wilborn, FNP, RN

There is no doubt that our children do some odd things…Oh the smiles and laughs they bring us!! Life would certainly be so dull without our children. Whether you’ve questioned some of your child’s odd behaviors or you’ve explained away the behaviors as typical childhood conduct, either way, a discussion of sensory needs is definitely worthwhile. As parents, there is a deep yearning to best serve and assist our children to grow into their unique personhood. Understanding and identifying your child’s individual sensory needs, maybe for the first time, and assisting them in taking steps to regulate these needs is quite a wonderful thing!

The 4 types of Sensory Needs can be grouped into:

• Avoiding - a child experiences too many sensations and avoids further
• Seeking - a child experiences Not Enough sensations and seeks more sensation
• Low Registration - a child does not register sensory stimulation and behaves blankly to all sensation
• Varied Behaviors - a child alternates between all three of the previously stated behaviors.

Some avoidance behaviors might include toe-walking, mispronouncing words (to avoid tongue on roof of mouth sensation), hypersensitivity to fabrics, foods, or in social events, easily overwhelmed…

Some seeking behaviors might include head banging, desiring touch, likes to hang upside down, maybe buries self under weighted items, has difficulty sitting still…

Some low registration behaviors might include disinterest in activities, seeming tired during activities despite being well rested…

Just as in holistic medicine, many practitioners view symptoms as gifts because they are a key to knowing how to treat and heal, sensory behaviors can also serve as a lifted veil to understand what a child is trying to say.  

                                                                     So how do you care for sensory needs?  

Sensory needs can be addressed with a unique approach based on severity. Some children might benefit from speech or occupational therapy, some benefit simply from sensory activities catered to what behaviors they exhibit, and some benefit simply from optimizing nutrients through supplementation and clean diet adherence. 

Though, at the heart of all sensory behaviors there is a common ground of varying levels of inflammation occurring. The higher the prevalence of behaviors is correlated with higher inflammatory markers. This is where working with a holistic practitioner is key to help uncover a child’s unique root cause of inflammation and consequently, their behaviors. It is no wonder today’s child is enumerated with inflammatory toxicants when today’s market tells parents that ultra-processed foods like goldfish or Gerber puffs are MORE nutritious than a real food! 

At RHM we believe in treating the root causes of the inflammation stressors: 

- using AAET for the desensitization to underlying allergens

- through individualized vitamin/mineral supplementation and dietary modifications

- utilizing oligotherapy to reveal heavy metal and toxic load levels

- through our detox specialist individualized detox plans.

All these avenues are options a child may need to really reduce systemic inflammation their body. We desire to see your child as God intended and if sensory needs have become a barrier, we would consider it a great gift to help. God Bless!