I’ve known for a long time that cold has an effect on Gus: The colder it gets, the more hyperactive he gets. This knowledge allows us to prepare accordingly so that we avoid things like 3 am wake-ups. His teacher knows to expect that he’ll need more sensory input than usual, I know to expect difficult mornings because, until the house is heated up, he’s going to be a little extra bouncy. What I didn’t expect was that he could have a high tolerance to cold while being sensitive to it. Makes no sense? That’s what I thought, but apparently that’s the case. I’ll explain.
Internally, Gus’s body doesn’t deal well with this type of year. I don’t know if it’s barometric pressure or just his brain telling his body that he needs to move more so he doesn’t freeze. Whatever it is, he goes into overdrive. But what I’m recently noticing is that externally, he seems to think he’s impervious to cold. I guess it’s coming up now because he’s getting to the age of balking at what he doesn’t want to wear. So now we’re seeing things like trying to leave the house without a jacket on, when it’s below freezing. For someone with less-than-zero body fat, this is probably not a smart idea.
I did a little research and learned that it’s not out of the ordinary for Aspies to have a high tolerance to cold. In Gus’s case, it would stand to reason – he has a high tolerance for some sensations. I suppose that even the seemingly contradictory nature of his reaction to cold shouldn’t surprise me all that much – his traits have always been very scattered, and his body and mind are not always on the same page. The discoveries never end with this young man.
At any rate, I’m sure we’ll have to have many conversations about the importance of dressing appropriately for the weather. Do you have a child who reacts to weather changes like this? If so, how do you handle it?
How do we handle it? Only way that has ever worked is to tell him if he insists on going out in the snow in shorts and vest some one will call the police and we will never see him again. This worked at 5 but now at 10 he says he is old enough to do as he wants and why should he wear things just to please dumb people. thick jumpers in summer are worse as by the end of winter he has just about got the idea of wearing suitable cloths then we dont want him to. Its hard,very hard.
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