OT: sounds trigger gagging

May 14, 2001

Hi Folks,

My ASD son has always been severely orally hypersensitive. He gags on

sight of certain foods and has an extremely limited diet. We have been

working on desensitizing his mouth in ST with nuks and toothbrushes etc.

Brushing therapy helped decrease his gagging about a year ago. We are

making very slow progress.

He was coming along for awhile and now he has gotten worse! He has been

gagging at the dinner table when he HEARS certain sounds. The most

common sound is the sound of his sisters eating cereal or soup, and the

sound of them chewing their food. Now, I know they are not the quietest

eaters, but they are pretty good for ages 6 and 3. Yet, my son gags

repeatedly and even lost his " oats " the other morning from the sound! I

thought it was the sight of the milk or food, but he has been yelling

" the noise! make her stop that noise! " while he is practically convulsing

in a gagging fit.

Has anyone ever had this happen? I am staggered by this newest problem.

I have a call in to the OT today and I know it is somehow related to

auditory since it is the sounds that are causing this problem. Jeez,

this poor kid. I need to help him ASAP and I am clueless. Got any

advice? He currently gets OT twice a week and will soon be losing one of

those sessions. They told me to definitely keep brushing him but I am

waiting to hear back on the auditory component in this.

Thanks,

Charlene

Mommy to ie (6) GFCF for over one year, Caroline (6), and (3)

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