Disabled child washing hair [mved from LTI]

Joey the lips

Not to sure if this is in the right section if the mods could move to the most suitable i would appreciate anyway

I have a disabled child(Mental). Lately he has become terrified of getting his hair washed. I think he has always been afraid to some point just lately he is very afraid to the point of shakeing.

As a parent i dont like this but what do i do? How do i proceed? Has anyone any experience of this and if so could they share there experience of how they overcome this.

Obvious I am in talks with my childs team but as my parents know with disabled children the best advice comes from parents in the same boat,

Thanks in advance.

_Whimsical_

Hi Joey. Sorry to hear that your son is going through that. It must be very upsetting to see him shaking. I don't have a disabled child so my advice might be useless to you but I thought I'd take a chance and share it anyway.

Do you know what your son is so afraid of? If he is afraid of getting soap in his eyes or the sensation of water in his ears there's an aid you can buy called Lil Rinser that helps. It channels the water away from the face and ears so there's no soap in eyes or water in ears to worry about. It might make your sons experience a bit less traumatic and he might not be as afraid in future then.http://www.lilrinser.com/inuse.html

There's also Baptise Dry Shampoo available in most chemists. It's a powder you spray into dry hair that removes grease and some dirt. Using it on him might prolong the time between his hair washes.

Those suggestions might not be what you are looking for at all. Hopefully someone with experience will answer up. The parenting forum might be a good place to have a look too. Good luck with it.

Joey the lips

chilly wrote: »

Hi Joey. Sorry to hear that your son is going through that. It must be very upsetting to see him shaking. I don't have a disabled child so my advice might be useless to you but I thought I'd take a chance and share it anyway.

Do you know what your son is so afraid of? If he is afraid of getting soap in his eyes or the sensation of water in his ears there's an aid you can buy called Lil Rinser that helps. It channels the water away from the face and ears so there's no soap in eyes or water in ears to worry about. It might make your sons experience a bit less traumatic and he might not be as afraid in future then.http://www.lilrinser.com/inuse.html

There's also Baptise Dry Shampoo available in most chemists. It's a powder you spray into dry hair that removes grease and some dirt. Using it on him might prolong the time between his hair washes.

Those suggestions might not be what you are looking for at all. Hopefully someone with experience will answer up. The parenting forum might be a good place to have a look too. Good luck with it.

Thanks but unfor that wont work. Its not that i would not try but its hard to make a child stay still. I also had a ring made to size like the rings you buy for a new born but that wont work either.

I will get the shampoo however

Thanks for the though anyway

Dizzyblonde

Joey, my daughter isn't disabled but for years she was terrified of having her hair washed too. She'd shake and scream and thrash about.
I used to put towels along the worktop in the kitchen and lie her down on them with her head, supported by my hand, over a sink of water. I'd get my husband to distract her and keep her calm while I washed her hair using a jug to wet and rinse it. Eventually she relaxed about it and grew out of the fear. Sorry if you've already tried this - if not, I hope it works for you.

Joey the lips

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Joey, my daughter isn't disabled but for years she was terrified of having her hair washed too. She'd shake and scream and thrash about.
I used to put towels along the worktop in the kitchen and lie her down on them with her head, supported by my hand, over a sink of water. I'd get my husband to distract her and keep her calm while I washed her hair using a jug to wet and rinse it. Eventually she relaxed about it and grew out of the fear. Sorry if you've already tried this - if not, I hope it works for you.

I have not tried it but will try something like it. I will try lying him on the floor over a basin. It might no seem as daunting. He is too long to lie on the sink otherwise i would try that. Thanks again

tbh

Hi Joey -

I think you might find more help in the parenting forum, so I've moved the thread there. However, I've left a redirect in LTI so you now have the attention of both audiences. Best of luck.

tbh.

PullOutMethod

Hi Joey,
My little girl is not disabled but had a similar reaction to hair washing.
(She's very sensitive)
I tried lots of things. The problem is if you somehow trick them once, ok the hair is washed but they wont trust you and it will get even more difficult the next time.
What ultimately worked was building up trust.
Move slowly and dont try to progress too much (even dousing part of the hair at first is progress) and keeping eye contact and repeatedly saying trust Daddy and letting her lift her head if she wanted to.
Eventually she realised she could lower her own head into the water and got the idea.
P

Joey the lips

PullOutMethod wrote: »

Hi Joey,
My little girl is not disabled but had a similar reaction to hair washing.
(She's very sensitive)
I tried lots of things. The problem is if you somehow trick them once, ok the hair is washed but they wont trust you and it will get even more difficult the next time.
What ultimately worked was building up trust.
Move slowly and dont try to progress too much (even dousing part of the hair at first is progress) and keeping eye contact and repeatedly saying trust Daddy and letting her lift her head if she wanted to.
Eventually she realised she could lower her own head into the water and got the idea.
P

Thank you, I understand you. I am slightly worse off as my child through his disability cannot speak. This means he kinda does not understand me. I am resorting to using a face cloth now with water and a little shampoo but this is not long termpractical

V1llianous

chilly wrote: »

There's also Baptise Dry Shampoo available in most chemists. It's a powder you spray into dry hair that removes grease and some dirt. Using it on him might prolong the time between his hair washes.

My son with special needs went for a few weeks terrified of the bath or shower. My wife had a cannister of this shampoo and it worked a treat as no bathing was possible apart from swimming :rolleyes:

Thankfully a fortnight later he just climbed into the shower with me and we are back to normal. Probably like yourself we can't get the message across of what we are going to do which is tough as sometimes these things really need to be done.

Hope you get sorted.

oh well

there is a forum over on www.rollercoaster.ie particularly for special needs and some of the advice given/received there can be excellent. maybe worth a try out. I've tried the lying on kitchen counter with my Downs nephew when he went through a patch of not wanting his hair washed. It worked for a while until he got too big. He's ok now and will hop into shower ok.

Hi there, I'm told that this is more effective than the dry shampoos:

http://www.rolli.ie/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=166

Hope you work it out.

magnumlady

My son is disabled and washing his hair was a problem.
I not sure how old your child is.
We used goggles with my son because he hated getting water anywhere near his eyes.
Now he showers himself but still uses the goggles.

Joey the lips

magnumlady wrote: »

My son is disabled and washing his hair was a problem.
I not sure how old your child is.
We used goggles with my son because he hated getting water anywhere near his eyes.
Now he showers himself but still uses the goggles.

Actually never tried the googles but you think i would have thought of it. I will give it a go thanks

magnumlady

Joey the lips wrote: »

Actually never tried the googles but you think i would have thought of it. I will give it a go thanks

No problem, hope it works for you.

_Whimsical_

Joey the lips wrote: »

Actually never tried the googles but you think i would have thought of it. I will give it a go thanks

Googles sound like a very good idea to try. Swimmers ear plugs might help too. To this day the sound of my ears filling up with water in the shower makes me instinctively panicy.I think it's a throw back to hating having my hair washed as a child!:)

This might be a very silly idea but if you can't verbally communicate with him, maybe you could put swimming shorts and googles on him before his bath/shower and make a playful change in the routine like that. It might give him the idea that something different/fun is going to happen in the bath and if he was less stressed he might handle the hair wash better.