Tuesday, July 20, 2010

In Which Connor Wishes He Could Find A Decent Exterminator


This morning Connor and I went to the library and picked up his theme box for the week.  We're doing bugs, and the box contained a bunch of fun things to look at and touch, including books, plastic insects and arachnids, and a number of puppets. 

As soon as we got home I set Connor up in his stander and I began my torture session (ie sensory therapy) with the items in the box.  There were two butterfly fingerpuppets that fit perfectly on his thumbs and two that fit on my fingers, so we tried those out for a while.  I told him all about butterflies while carefully demonstrating how to make the puppets look like they were flying. 

Connor had other ideas about what to do with his puppets; ideas that involved them not touching any part of his body.  He seemed to think that if he held his arms stiffly out at a 45 degree angle from his body and then flung his torso from side-to-side this would somehow dislodge the butterflies.  When that didn't work, he tried the arm-flapping method.  Pretty much all of the pictures I took of him look like this as a result.  Isn't that a wonderful facial expression?  He looks like he's having a great time!

He didn't cry, though, so that's a good thing.  Hopefully by the end of the week he'll be relatively used to these. 

I let him squirm for about five minutes and then took the puppets off and replaced them with our vibrating bee toy (not from the box but in our theme)-- if you put it in the tray attached to his stander the vibration is strong enough to be felt through the whole frame.  He was much more enamored with that toy, and he had a fun time turning it off and on.

Then we read a quick story about bees, and after that we were off to the audiologist!  It turned out that Connor would have desperately needed new earmolds even if he hadn't lost one, as he's grown significantly since the last time they were done.  We gave Connor the choice of whatever color earmolds he wanted, but he didn't express any interest in picking his own color, so I did it for him.  There are a ton of cool colors out there to choose from-- we ended up going with a lovely translucent blue, which I thought would be easy to find if he manages to yank them off the hearing aid and throw them away again.

That's going to be significantly harder for him to do, though, thanks to the new torture device that the audiologist and I discussed today.  Since Connor refused to keep his hearing aids on at school (he literally pulled them off as we entered the building) and has a tendency to jerk them out any time he's tired/pouting/distracted/bored/etc, we've tried a variety of ways to keep them on, none of which have worked.  The only time he is okay with wearing them is when he's at home, where it's very quiet and safe.  That just won't cut it; especially as his hearing continues to worsen.  So we're pulling out the big guns, and buying him one of these.

That's right: once Connor's new earmolds come, he'll be sporting a lovely hat every time we're in public until he gets the idea that he can't pull his hearing aids out all of the time.  Actually, I guess it's more of a bonnet.  Apparently (according to our audiologist-- let me know if you can find the study) it's been shown that these particular hats have material that's thin enough to allow unobstructed hearing, and they don't cause any feedback.  They have a tie, which means Connor won't be able to get the hat off by himself.

Connor hates hats with a burning passion, so this should be a pretty good incentive for learning to keep his hearing aids in.  I'll do my part by keeping the hat on him and just feeling horribly guilty about the stress I'm causing my poor kid, even if it's for his own good.  I'll probably applique something to his hat to make it slightly more cool, but I doubt that will help Connor feel any happier about wearing it; even if I put a dinosaur on it. 

Oh well.

~Jess

9 comments:

Generic Viagra Online said...

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FutureBionicEar Mom said...

I have been reading your blog for almost a year now. This website might help you to keep Connor's hearing aids from flying off when he knocks them off. The pilot caps are used alot with kids that have CIs because they do not have feedback. Here is the website that I found that carried clips for hearing aids.
http://www.adcohearing.com/haa_hear_aid_acc.html

xraevision said...

Isn't it a mother's job to "torture" her child with such horrible things as field trips to exciting places and a week learning about bugs? Poor Connor! I will surely use some of your ideas to harass my son.

When X got his aids, we purchased Ear Gear and loved it! X pulled out his aids constantly in the early weeks, but I made it my number one job to put them back in. He eventually gave up, even though he went through the same phase again much later. We never lost the aids because they were always attached to his shirt.

http://www.gearforears.com/

MFA Mama said...

HAHAHA, I love the look on the poor little stinker's face in the second photo! Poor Connor :)

Lisa G. said...

Jess,
I have had to do things like that before with kids. Just a thought though, why not start Connor without the hat, but show him the hat and warn him that if he pulls off his hearing aids they will be put back on but this time with the hat! He is so smart you may only have to do this a few times. I had to do this with a little boy who would pull his trache tube out whenever he didn't like something (not a good idea, by the way), so I got some of those soft splints and told him every time he pulled it out, he would have to wear the splints. It only took a couple of times and a few threats and he stopped it completely.
By the way, I think you are doing a great job desensitizing him, but gotta say I do love the faces!
Lisa

Julia said...

Yeah, those Hannah Anderson pilot caps are all the rage among the hearing aid and CI set. We bought some used from another mother I met through cicircle, although they turned out to be a bit small for Ben and we never used them much. But everyone swears by them. We also used the tether that came with his Oticon aids. It was just long enough to allow him unobstructed movement, but not long enough for him to get an aid into his mouth if he pulled it out. After he got his CI, I adapted it to work with one aid. If Connor's hearing worsens, he'll probably be more amenable to wearing the aids because the benefit will be more clear to him.

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Oh Jess... and if your humor isn't enough, you leave little "treasures" like that comment from GenericViagraOnline!

I needed a laugh to day!

Hope the pilot cap does the trick.

Julie

Anavar said...

Your Connor is such a sweetie! He looks so funny trying to get rid of butterflies on their fingers. I guess he was not in the mood. If I were you, I'd try same thing next day. I wish you and your sunshine lots of happy moments together. Greetings and thanks for sharing!

Julia O'C said...

That "Connor with the Butterfly Picture" is AWESOME. His facial expression says it all. What a cool kid.

If you sewed kitty ears to the hat, do you think he would like it better? Or would that be just mean?

Also: Generic Viagra Online likes your blog! BWAHAHAHAHA!!

 
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