Clothing struggles/resistance

CD+AL

DS is suddenly refusing/resisting wearing shorts.  He's always worn them, and it's never been a problem.  He still wears them to sleep in on warm nights, but he doesn't want to wear them to school, out and about, to his soccer games, etc. 

If it weren't for his eczema which is aggravated by the tiniest bit of sweat (let alone more sweat caused by wearing more layers than necessary) I would just leave it alone, let him wear jeans (his pants of choice) and wait until it blows over.  However, we already have to use steroid cream more than I'd like and now that it's getting hot out it's bound to get worse. 

Any ideas for helping him understand that he needs to wear them at times to help his "ouchie spots?"  I can usually reason with him, but he just ISN'T having it.  I've only come up with:
A)  Force the issue.  Fight the battle and make him wear the shorts when it's that hot
  Let him choose and then suffer the consequences even though it means more pain, crying in the shower due to the irritation and medications in the long run.

I've been going with B when possible (main exception is when he is playing soccer and needs to comply with league rules), but it's just a vicious circle of sweat, pain/itching/bleeding, medication, etc.

Osco13

Maybe let him go to the store(target) and pick any pair of shorts he wants. And then buy a bunch in different colors.

 That way he exerts some control but you save him the pain of his eczema.

I often get more out of offering two choices than mandating one particular outfit. 

Good luck!

KathrynMD

have you tried giving him 2 shorts to pick from (or 3?) or letting him get them out of the drawer?

I sometimes negotiate w/ DD to let her wear a certain thing at home, but not outside.  So, she can wear her super fancy dress at home any time she wants, but she has to change if we leave the house.

jlw2505

Have you let him pick the shorts out?  I know my younger DD went through a phase where she would only wear black leggings adn would never ever wear jeans.  I could get her to wear other color leggings if I put up a fight but honestly, the majority of the time, the battle was just not worth fighting.  Letting her have some power in what she wore made it easier in the long run as she knew that on the rare times that I insisted she wear something I picked out, she would be fine with it since she knew in the day to day, she got to choose.  I let my girls pick out their clothes 90% of the time at around age 2 and on. 

Sawyerplus1

Osco13:

Maybe let him go to the store(target) and pick any pair of shorts he wants. And then buy a bunch in different colors.

 That way he exerts some control but you save him the pain of his eczema.

I often get more out of offering two choices than mandating one particular outfit. 

Good luck!

This sounds like a good first step to me. Otherwise I would just force the issue. Maybe I'm a meanie, but if it's really that important that he wear shorts when it's hot out, then he just has to do it (kinda like having to wear a coat when it's cold out, except in your case there's more medical relevance than just getting too hot or cold). But I would definitely try giving 'options' first

AgrippaRidesAgain

I force the issue and as I'm doing it I reinforce the "we wear weather appropriate clothing" rule.  He can pick out anything that he wants, as long as it's weather appropriate.  It started out as a big fight (we always have huge problems with seasonal weather/clothing changes), but now every morning we just go downstairs to the computer and check the temperature to see what we should wear for the day.

DS doesn't have the eczema problem, but he does have a massive sweating problem.  He can't be wearing pants outside when it's 80 degrees.  He practically melts when he's in shorts!

CD+AL

Thanks all!  This is the first time I've really dealt with push-back about clothing from either of my kids, so it was a new battle.  The past couple of days I set out 2 or 3 options and told him that he could choose the outfit as long as it was one of the choices sitting on his bed.  That seemed to work for now.  He started to question it, but then I said that he needs to either go make a choice from the options available or I will choose for him.  Seemed to get him motivated.    We'll see how this goes, but for now, we may have just solved the problem.  Thanks!