Compression clothing

MamaPajamas

Is there any where to buy affordable tight fitting or compression clothes for babies/toddlers (like, size 18-24 months)? Do any retail stores carry anything like that (very tiny under armor? Lol) or does it have to be special ordered online somewhere? Tia!

MamaPajamas

Thanks, Auntie! She does, but everything I have seen is out of our price range right now. I was hoping someone had found a more commercially available affordable resource that worked in a similar way.

MamaPajamas

I've definitely got it on my list to ask her about a vest. We are looking for something tighter that might help him sleep, though. Oh my gosh, a b/s/t page would be so so so helpful!

hopecounts

https://funandfunction.com/sens-ational-hug-tee-short-sleeves-white.html

We got a couple of these for DD and they seem to have helped.

For us they ran a little big, she's in 3t and her tall and skinny self the 2/3 was a smidge looser then is probably ideal.

d.f

My area has a store geared toward ASD. They have an online presence too.https://www.autismcommunitystore.com/ They carry a lot of sensory aids. My. H found it when my son was acting out an I was desperate. They carry the fun and function shirts and the compression vest that I bought. Sometimes teacher type stores have some sensory aids too.

MamaPajamas

Thank, df! I will look into it! Auntie, we have a weighted blanket on the way!

bogus123

We got ours from his OT, but she has suggested the rash guards as well.

MamaPajamas

Brilliant! Rash Guard is a great idea! I will definitely try that! I couldn't sew to save my life... lol... But I really should learn!

Micelle78

I see that a lot of people gave you some good input.

We tried the rash guards but DS is pretty small around the chest and we could not get an under armour to work because we could not do one tight enough.

We went the route of a specialty one.  Each one cost $250 before insurance and I am lucky that our insurance covered all but about $50.  We have seen improvement in speech because he really needed it to calm down the flight or fight response his body is continually in.  He has sensory issues as well as a speech delay.  You would not know he is in that flight or fight mode, but his eye doctor noticed immediately.  A sign is that his eyes are dilated a lot and also from my accounts of his sensory behavior.  The brain spends so much energy on trying to focus that it interferes with his basic functioning (I am not really that good at explaining this if you can tell LOL)  I don't think you would necessarliy notice it unless you spent a lot of time with him, but the OT explained it this way to me.  He is overly social and very energetic and happy.  He just sometimes gets stuck in these times of needing to jump and fall on his knees or jump off the couch over and over.  To the layman, it would just look like a very happy "boy" (you know because people always say someone is just being a boy -insert eye roll here-!! LOL)

So I notice that if he wears the shirt, he speaks better, although his hyper behavior and need to be active (like jumping off the couch, rubbing face on the carpet, shaking his head, visual stimming, lots of other odd behaviors) are not gone, just reduced.  Most of his stuff though honestly is vision related and he has extreme farsightedness (+6 in both eyes)  This can explain a lot of the stimming.  He likes to drop flashcards in front of his eyes and also stare at ceiling fans.  We also found out his vision is neurological, so its not what his eyes see, its what his brain is telling him he sees (which is no bueno).  He also has a pretty bad receptive speech delay due to auditory processing problems. 

The compression is one of the best things we have tried because I do see a difference.  In fact after a week of wearing it, he was using a while bunch of new vocab and using it appropriately.  It was a sudden explosion of speech, much like we saw a few weeks after getting glasses (vision is a big contributor to understanding speech).  Right now since we live in the desert (its was 106 degrees today and this whole week), I have him wear the compression over night and not during the day.  I am noticing that as long as we do some type of physical activity and wear the shirt overnight, he has a reduction in stimming and increase in communication.

Sorry it got wordy!  I just wanted to share our experience.  We have been doing the compression since May.