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Soft™Clothing alternative tactics customized shirt review

March 29, 2012 By 2 Comments

Ash tugs at and fidgets with his socks, after pushing his standard-jeans pant legs up and down and up and down. At no time did he fuss with his shirt, though.

About two years ago, I was  lucky enough to review Soft™Clothing’s nautical striped tee and their “jeans”.  Far more recently, I was lucky enough to review a pair of their seamless underwear — and am currently running a GiveAway of a 3-pack of the same.  It doesn’t end there, though.  Oh no no no no no.  See, so long as my brain is working, I go through life thinking things like, “Well yes, that’s splendid, but what if…?!”  Admittedly, sometimes that is not a good thing.  Other times, though, the most marvelous things can be thunk, when you’re thinking outside the box.  I know I sound like Dr.Seuss, but bear with me.

The thing is, Soft™Clothing has proven to be an excellent resource when it comes to wardrobing kids with Sensory Processing Disorder.  The OTHER thing is that the overwhelming majority of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder, also have at least some degree of SPD.  The OTHER OTHER thing is that people with ASD….especially kids with ASD….are known for being finicky about more than just how their clothes fit and feel.  Some might be satisfied if everything they wear is a certain color.  Others might only be willing to put clothes on if the clothes cater to their obsessive, passionate interests.

Go ahead, try to find clothes in the right size, fit, texture, style, color AND design that caters to your child’s veeerrrrryyyyy specific wants and needs.  Now try to do so without breaking the bank, the clock, or what passes for your sanity.  If you’re the caretaker of a child with ASD and SPD, you’re probably laughing/screaming/crying along with me, right now.

Ash isn’t as “bad” about this as many of the special needs kids I know in his diagnostic category, but he does have his themes, as it were, and once he started taking an interest in what he was wearing, he started wanting more and more of it to reflect those themes.  He would sometimes ask to wear a specific shirt, and that shirt would not necessarily currently exist in his wardrobe, or perhaps even in stores from which I might shop to accommodate the wish for his wardrobe.  What would follow would quite possibly be a meltdown, during which he certainly wouldn’t make any progress towards getting dressed in anything he did have as an option.  Now, I’m not saying that that’s ok, or that we’re letting Ash think that’s ok.  On the other hand, I’m not saying a little preemptive damage control is never welcome, either.

When I was offered the seamless underwear for review, I asked if I might also review a shirt for the express purpose of testing out how well it would take an iron-on fabric transfer.  See, those little beauties allow you to print out any design you have the whiles to come up with, and stick it more-or-less-permanently on fabric.  The end result isn’t as tactile-unobtrusive as something which is screenprinted, but, honestly, it’s a lot less stiff and annoying than many professionally manufactured shirts and such, with different kinds of appliques on them.  I’ve been using them lately, along with cotton t-shirts from DollarTree, to make Ash special-occasion-gift shirts for things like Valentine’s Day and St. Paddy’s Day.  Admittedly, I’ve designed those shirts to be wearable on more than just their source holidays, but, 100% cotton though they might be, they still aren’t comfortable enough for Ash to want to wear them regularly.  So it is that my mind held certain things — many of them involving dragons — in reserve for shirts like the ones from Soft™Clothing.  If THOSE shirts — already proven in so many ways (reflected in my review of the t-shirt and the accolades to them revisited in my review of the underwear) — could take a transfer well, I could end up with the ultimate, customized shirts for Ash.  Moreover, I could let you all know that, so long as you have an inkjet printer and an iron, you could end up with the ultimate, customized shirts (or whatever) for YOUR kids, too.

If CafePress let me stick the kinds of things I come up with onto Soft™Clothing items, I’d be oh so happy to reap the varied kinds of reward, lemme tell ya….but in the meantime, at least I could do this for myself.

This is the product image off the company website. The grey is sort of a light-medium grey in darkness, and the blue is a sort of cross between robin's-egg blue and turquoise.

In any event, Jessica from Soft™Clothing loved the idea of my test, and so I got two shirts to play with for purposes of the review.  Unfortunately, because of the season, they didn’t have anything in stock at the time, in the size and color combinations I was most interested in — because I already had design-transfers in mind — but I wasn’t about to let that stop me.  I ended up with a Medium in the Grey Heather/Blue Danube Two-Tone Raglan Long-Sleeved Tee, and a Medium in the Heather Grey Soft Sensory Tee.  Ash wasn’t especially fond of the raglan’s color scheme, so I set that one aside to test out how it took dye.

This shows the raglan given one dye job with cheap-o RIT dye in forest green, and, for contrast, the seamless underpants that are almost exactly the blue that the sleeves started off as.

Predictably for a 100% cotton shirt, the fabric took the dye as well as could be expected for the quality of the dye used.  I did get a very even color, which speaks well of the shirts as a starting point for more invested dye jobs.  As you can tell from the photo, the dye does NOT “take” on the thread used, which serves as a reminder that even “100% cotton” shirts don’t use 100% cotton thread.

I haven’t yet come up with the right transfer graphic to take advantage of this slightly odd end-result color combination, so this shirt might eventually get a transfer, or might end up getting a second dye job with some more potent black aniline dye that will “take” thoroughly on the whole shibang.

The grey tee was easier to tackle as originally intended.  I decided that since I hadn’t ended up with one of the “summer wash” tie-dye shirts to add a funky black dragon silhouette to, to make it look like, say, the dragon was breathing fire at the bottom of the shirt….or just one in plain navy, since Ash is big on blue and there are plenty of dragon graphics I’ve got waiting behind the scenes, that would coordinate with it….I would make the most of the unplanned color of what came, and come up with something that would not only work well on it, but really push the limits of the experiment.

If the fabric could hold a transfer carefully cut into all those fiddly little spikes, curves, points and edges, it could hold any transfer.

Ash’s favorite shirts tend to have one of a few things in common.  If they don’t have dragons or some other strong interest on them, they pay tribute to how cute he is, his impishness, or some other prized quality of his personality.  Since he can read, words are more than welcome.  With Ash having recently begun to experience bullying because of his differences, I thought I’d make him a shirt that stressed how distinctive he is, in a more positive light.

For size reference, this is a photo of the entire, not-exactly-laid-down-evenly shirt with the transfer on it. Trust me, those fiddly bits were fiddly!

I could not have been more impressed by the way that the shirt took the transfer.  The fabric is so smooth, I don’t think that any adhesive micrometers went to waste.  Washing the garment inside-out in cool water and drying it inside-out as well….as per transfer paper instructions….the shirt has thus far made it through somewhere around 4 wearings during the day and 3 wearings during the night, as well as the wash-and-dry following each of those, plus one before it the transfer-applied shirt was ever worn.  There has been no bubbling or lifting of the transfer.   Furthermore, the transfer has managed to stick that well to the front of the shirt, without any of the fabric adhesive going THROUGH the fabric.  That tells me that the weave is not only smooth, soft, and lightweight, but also very tight.  Even with the transfer applied, Ash finds this shirt more comfortable to wear than unadorned, standard cotton t-shirts.

In fact, this became one of Ash’s favorite shirts, the first time he discovered it.  “Mommy, this shirt is like my soft, stripy shirt!” he said, as he flicked through his closet to choose what he would wear the next day.  Yes, you really can feel the difference between these shirts and the average cotton shirt, at one touch.  Well, as Ash pulled it free of its hanger, he realized what the design was, and then he was even happier.  “Mommy!  This shirt talks about how I’m not BORING!!”

Homework time is full of potential triggers, but feeling physically comfortable always helps keep the mood light!

Ash wore the shirt all day that day — which happened to be a Saturday.  Not once did he twist it around him.  Not once did he tug on the collar until it distended enough to get yanked down over his shoulders as he pulled at it.  Not once did he lift it up over his stomach.  Even if it got a splatter of water on it when he washed his hands, he didn’t want it changed for a “dry” shirt.  He wanted to sleep in it that night, and since it didn’t appear to even be sweaty, I let him.  He took it off the next morning only after getting me to promise….and this should sound familiar….that I would put it in the laundry so that he could wear it again to bed that night.

The shirt is comfortable enough to sleep in, even when he's being so tactile that he wraps himself up entirely in super-plush blankets.

He even checked up on my laundry duties several times that Sunday, to make sure I didn’t drop the ball.

Now, normally Ash takes off whatever he was wearing at night, in the morning, before changing into his new clothes for the day.  This is not just a practical habit we’ve tried to instill in him, it’s part of his ROUTINE.  On Monday morning, however, he specifically called out instructions to not enter his room until he finished getting dressed.  Steffan, who was taking over get-him-ready-for-the-bus duties that morning, never thought to check for the night-worn shirt in the laundry pile, and wonder why it wasn’t there.  Ash had –  in defiance of his own routines, the high temperatures that day, and what in most other tees would have been a night’s accumulation of sweat — decided to be sneaky and keep the shirt on, layering the t-shirt which had been chosen for that day, the night before, over it.

On Monday afternoon, upon my suggestion that it was perhaps too warm to stay wearing two layers, Ash finally took off the OTHER shirt, and left the soft -- and STILL impressively un-sweaty -- one on.

He has worn it, as noted, a number of times since then.  He has worn it at home, worn it at school, worn it out and about, worn it to bed.  He is quite in love with the thing, which is pretty impressive since it is neither blue nor emblazoned with a dragon.  I can definitely tell you that I’ll be hoping to win Soft™Clothing shirt giveaways that other bloggers host, so that I can make Ash a heck of a lot more special shirts that delight his personality as much as his sensory needs.  I can also tell you that the Soft™Clothing shirts aced the test I gave them, and I thoroughly recommend taking advantage of them as a medium on which to create perfectly personalized shirts for your sensory kids.

A brownie AND an awesome shirt?! Man, life is good.

Five out of five stars on the iron-on-transfer front.  Four out of five stars on the unplanned dyeability angle, and that’s only because the synthetic thread doesn’t “take” the cheap dye most of us can afford.  (Granted, cotton sewing thread is generally only sold for decorative quilt stitching for a reason….it simply isn’t as strong as synthetic threads.)  I should add the disclaimer that I used a particular kind of fabric transfer paper — which is text-linked in this review — so results might vary if you use other brands.  I got better results on this shirt than any other shirt I’ve used this particular transfer paper on, though, which makes the Soft™Clothing shirts doubly perfect for this purpose.

All of these photos were taken on different days. Here, Ash is part-way through his bedtime routine, but asked me to take a picture of him in his shirt.

It's just so cool, he can't believe it!

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Please see my review and GiveAway of the Soft™Clothing seamless underwear!

Please see my review of the Soft™Clothing “blue jeans” and “nautical striped tee”!

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SoftClothing seamless underwear review and giveaway

March 29, 2012 By 9 Comments

I have waxed poetic about Soft™Clothing and the salvation they can offer the wardrobes of sensory kids, before.  If you read that review, you shouldn’t be surprised that I’m doing another one, or that I will continue to do them whenever I get the opportunity to!  After all, the smaller size in the “jeans” I reviewed last are now in the spare-changes bin of the Special Education department at my son’s school, the larger pair currently travel in our car as a spare change (they are so much less bulky to stash away, than normal jeans are, too!), and the t-shirt, despite being used regularly for two years now, is….well, I’d say that it is still being worn to death, except it doesn’t appear to be showing any signs of aging at all.  I’m not sure how that is possible.  It has pale stripes, yet they show no more sign of staining than the dark stripes show of fading.  The fabric is super soft and lightweight, and yet there isn’t even a little hole anywhere despite what Ash’s use, and the subsequent washes, have put it through.  Need I reiterate that Ash, now almost 7, in school (including art class, playgrounds, gym…), and having ASD & SPD to boot, is not easy on his clothes?  No, I didn’t think so.

This time, I had the good fortune to be offered a pair of their seamless underwear — a Cribsie Award finalist — to review.  Specifically, I was sent the Organic Unisex Solid Seamless Boxer in blue.  Now, Ash had thus far always used briefs, so I was very curious about how he’d take to these fitted boxers.  I liked the idea that they might….erm….do a better job of CONTAINING my wriggly little boy.  I also thought they might lead to less chafing around for what women is referred to as the bikini line, because there wouldn’t be a seam….hell, there wouldn’t even be a fabric edge, there, to rub against him as he moved and moved and moved and moved and moved around.  The potential benefits of them being overall-stretchy-but-not-binding, and oh yes, SEAMLESS….well, those were more obvious and presumed.

I wanted to err on the side of looseness when it came to the first size tried, because I didn’t want Ash’s unfamiliarity with having underpants extending down his thighs at all, alone, be enough to turn him off from how the boxers (which are really more like boxer-briefs) felt.  So, on went the pair of size Mediums.  At almost 7 years old, and with his poundage in the low 40s, the Medium was a decent guess for fit on Ash anyway, despite not getting him to hold still long enough to measure his waist.  It ALMOST fit.  The legs and crotch area were pretty much perfect, but the waist was too loose to stay up, so it ended up drooping on top and falling 1/3 of the way down his butt.  Sure, I could’ve sewn in some darts, but that would kind of defy the purpose of seamless underwear.  According to Ash, “The blue underpants hug me soft and no distracting wiggle, but they are the wrong tall enough.”

Very well.  It was time to try the size Small.  I wondered if they would end up too tight on his thighs and crotch, since the Mediums were comfortable on those parts of him — or if the fabric would stretch enough that it wouldn’t matter if they started off more closely-fitting there, but would also actually stay ABOVE his butt, on his waist.  As it turned out, the size Small fit perfectly.  He put them on by himself in the morning, and went through the entire day without so much as a lower-body fidget except for when he was debating his need to use the bathroom.  At night — when he has to change into Pull-Ups because he hasn’t been able to night-train yet — he didn’t want to take them off.  He started asking me if he could put his Pull-Ups on, “ON TOP of the soft hug underpants,” but then reconsidered in favor of having me promise to wash the underwear that night, so he could wear them again the next day.

I guess we need more!!  Now, we don’t have more yet, but that circumstance has allowed the one well-sized pair he has, to be worn and washed and worn and washed enough times that I have high hopes for the durability of the item.  You’d think they came right out of the package, every time they are plucked from Ash’s dresser.  The color is still vibrant (and never bled, by the way, although I admit red dye tends to be the bigger culprit for that, in general), the fabric still showing no signs of distension or pilling or other kinds of wear.  Honestly, my own underwear doesn’t hold up that well, and I’m pretty damn sure it’s not as comfortable, either.

I give the underpants 5 out of 5 stars.  I’ll make it a 6 out of 5 stars if they keep adding color options.

I’d say that I wish I could show you a photo of Ash running amok in his “soft hug underpants”, except that would sound kind of creepy, for much the same reason that I am not going to post photos of my first grader wearing in his underwear.  You’ll have to settle for the photos that go with my outside-the-box review of some Soft™Clothing shirts, to be posted HERE.  In the meantime, we’re offering a Giveaway of a boxer or brief style 3-pack (a $30 value) in the size of the winners choice.  Please remember that I was offered the aforementioned product for free, so that I might review it, but the opinions contained in this post are entirely my own — well, mine and Ash’s.  Also note that if you win the giveaway, arrangements will be made between you and the company to have the winnings mailed directly to you, from them, at no cost to you or to me.

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My autistic son offers harsh reality a fairy tale

February 12, 2012 By 2 Comments

Recently, as both an exercise and a gesture of much -needed friendship, Ash has been writing e-mails to Ollie, (in the hope of eventual correspondence, and until we are all better set up for attempted Skype-plus-Mommy-interpreters conversation).  Shortly before Lil’O's I-lose-track-because-he’s-had-somewhere-around-nearly-30-operations-in-only-8-years-NTH and recent surgery, Ash sent him this one:

See note at the bottom of this post, for more information about these stunning performers, and why in particular I love them.

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Dear Ollie….thank you so much for giving me Amethyst the dragon, and I hope you like dragons, too.  The doctor was trying to get you better.  Remember, you have to stay still.  All right.  Love, [Ash]

This time, I will tell you a story:

Once upon a time, there was a prince with his Mommy and Daddy.  There was even a magician with a pointy hat, and the rest of him was blue.  There were even faeries.  One day, the prince will have to love his time to get a wish.  The faeries danced and cheered!  The magician thought about that in the thought cloud in his head.  The faeries started to give the prince a wish.  “I wish that everybody could be friends,” said the prince.  And suddenly, he grew up and he went to his Mommy and Daddy, who were usually the grown-ups.  And they had all lived happily ever after.  The end!

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Why yes, I think I am in love with my child.  I mean, the letter itself was adorable enough, but then he dictated the story to me too, and….wow.  The expression ‘dies of cute’ comes to mind.  It doesn’t hurt that he so rarely tells stories, as such.  The last time he did was around Halloween, and the first and last time before that was about a year beforehand.

Any way, I just wanted to share, in case Ash’s story makes anyone else smile as much as it made Lil’O do so. :-)

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The photo composite at right is of The Seelie Players, an extremely unique and exquisite performance troupe.  One of their specialties is the portrayal of adaptable, faerie-like characters that interact purely through movement, facial expression, and natural sounds.  I had the pleasure of watching Ash play with and fall for several of the women of the group while performing in earlier incarnations of their roles while at a Renaissance Festival, back when Ash was still non-verbal.  I will never forget the magic that was shared on those days.  Neither, I think, will Ash.  Almost five years since his opportunity to connect with them, he still looks for them every time we attend a faire.  While they are most commonly recruited for bookings at things like festivals, I strongly feel that they are perfectly suited to serve as therapeutic entertainment at events for the special-needs, very much including those attended by non-verbal autistic children.  In fact, they have expressed to me that they would be willing to offer a discount to individuals or organizations wishing to book them for such.

www.theseelieplayers.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TheSeeliePlayers

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/384545057/the-seelie-players-sirena

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Review of Photo-Bulb Ornaments by Jars by Lisa

December 17, 2011 By 2 Comments

This is the front of my ornament. It would look better if we didn't have such cruddy lighting in our living room.

Once upon a time, Ash’s godmommy fell so in love with a photo that I had taken of him, that she had it professionally printed on one of those painted porcelain globe ornaments for us.  It is among my favorite ornaments, but, alas, I no longer (at least for now) dare to hang it on our tree in the living room, because Ash looooves examining Christmas Tree ornaments, and he looooves looking at photos, and the combination would be so enticing that….well, we’d soon enough find out how much he doesn’t love having shards of glass and ceramic embedded in him.

All that being said, when Lisa Gallegos of the Seven YuckMouths & Autism blog showed me the new ornaments she was adding to her line of decorative jars, I smiled hopefully and oh-so-sweetly when it came to a chance to do a review.  I mean, we all know I’m a sucker for photos.  Most of us have also probably picked up on the fact that I’m a big fan of reducing the fodder that Ash hardly needs, when it comes to opportunities to injure himself via things that he shouldn’t be able to manage to injure himself via.

And so it came to pass.  The ornament was sent to me (efficiently, I might add) for free, so that I might review it.  There was no other compensation.  All quiet squee-ing is my own.

This is the ornament's back, which is the domed part. Were it not for the detail of how the ribbon bow is tied, and my desire to see the photo more often, it could just as well be the front of the ornament. In any event, it makes it a whole lot cuter from different angles, and when it gets spun around. I had a choice when it came to this side of the ornament as well, but I thought Ash would like the snowman I saw in Lisa's example ornament.

Does this look like one of those expensive, professionally-manufactured ornaments?  No, of course not.  Unless you are a child (oh wait, I did say that Ash’s interest was a major factor here, now didn’t I?), plastic and ribbon is never going to look as posh and polished as screen-painted porcelain, and brass-set glass.  On the other hand, it’s also not as FRAGILE as the aforementioned.  In fact, I think it would take a fair amount of intention and effort for Ash to manage to damage this ornament, or damage himself with it.  It’s lightweight but not flimsy, there are no sharp edges, and everything is secured firmly in place.  I am completely unconcerned about it being on the tree, well within his eager reach.  Also, it doesn’t look totally cheap and cheesy like many of the other ok-I-think-this-one-will-be-non-fragile-enough ornaments our tree started sporting a few years ago.  It’s got that DIY charm, and it’s cuuuuute, but it’s not chintzy, or possessed of that falling-apart-before-it’s-done-being-put-together effect that ornaments made by our kids have.  Honestly, for $3.50 that’s going to the good cause of another special needs parent, and adorable memorabilia that looks like it will last, it’s totally worth it.

Next year I might just have to end up with one for each of the annual photos that I have the tradition of making sure we get!  (And, since it seems I haven’t actually posted a photo retrospective yet, I shall have to do that this year.)  I think that would be totally delightful!  Then, right there on our tree, everyone — as-unsupervised-as-he-ever-gets-Ash included — can look at the history of our family playing out over the years, from annual family Christmas portrait to annual family Christmas portrait.  I think that would make a great present for grandparents or the like, too.  There is only so much shelf or wall space for frames, and it’s a shame to NOT keep older photos in view just because they are older photos….but with 2″ ornaments,  there is plenty of room to work with!

For me, one of the other little advantages of this is that it gives something special to do with the portrait that might have been the best of the shots, except it isn’t clear enough to remain so once you make it large enough to bother framing.  Sometimes, all the mad Photoshop-fu skillz in the world aren’t enough.  With this ornament, that no longer matters — the photo that looks the best blown up can go into the frame, and the photo that looks awesome in miniature can pointedly do just that.

This is the photo that Lisa used. The ornament actually does look as good as what I sent her, there is just the noted issue of lighting in my photos of the ornament on the tree.

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Review & GiveAway: Kid Companions Chewlery

December 5, 2011 By 22 Comments

Ash takes a break from gnawing on his KidCompanions chewlery, to let me know what he thinks of it.

Wondering if you’re nuts for thinking that “chewlery” sounds like jewelry you’re meant to chew on?  Wondering why you’d want some?  Read THIS feature on chewlery first, and then come back here for my personal-experience review of the KidCompanions brand of it.

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Ash, at six, is what we indulgently call a “big boy” — and while my big boy has outgrown eating more inanimate objects than actual food, he still munches on things he’s not meant to….whether that is the edge of his shirt or the little razors otherwise known as his nails….especially when experiencing a fresh bout of Teething: Part 2.

Pierrette A D’Entremont of KidCompanions sent us a couple of samples to test out on Ash, last year, and while the products were free for review, I received no compensation for this review beyond the provision of those samples, and Ash’s reactions, as well as my stated opinions, are entirely our own.  So what did we think?

Well first of all, I thought it was wonderful to be able to give Ash permission and encouragement to vent his oral needs on something, without having to worry about it!  Kid Companions pendants are made with medical grade thermoplastic polymers.  Their products are bpa, phthalate, lead and latex free, conform to safety standards around the world, and hold a CPSIA 3rd party testing certificate.  The sense of responsibility to high safety standards applies not only to the trademarked pendants, but to all other components of the products as sold.  (In fact, the only reason why a round cord is not available as an option for those whose children would do better to lose the potential sensation of a twisted flat cord than to have the space for printing, is that the company has yet to be able to track down a rounded cord that meets their health and durability criteria.)  The same can be said for product care — though it may be more effective to wash the lanyard and pendant separately, it is not necessary.   They may be washed by hand with soap and water or placed on the top rack of the dishwasher.  The “dots” on the front and back of the pendants cannot come loose, as they extend from the core of the pendant itself.  Any printing or labeling on the lanyards is permanently fused on.  So long as I checked things periodically to make sure of structural integrity under fire, as it were….Ash could suck, nibble, chomp, lick, grind, and generally go to town on the things, with my blessing.

As for Ash, he appreciated having my blessing to do just that, and immediately accepted my assertion that these “chewy hearts” and “chewy circles” fit into the rather limited category of things which were not meant for eating but were meant for biting anyway.  After a quick once-over with his eyes and fingers, he shifted into a no-holds-barred impersonation of a slightly hungry puppy having just been given a bone with the steak still attached.  Over the times to follow, his enthusiasm was sometimes just as unbridled and sometimes tempered into an idle gnawing, but always it conveyed both comfort and enjoyment.  One friend of mine said, “He makes ME want to chew on one!”

How did they pass muster more specifically?

Appearance: Ash appreciated having different colors and shapes to choose from, although he expressed a predictable wish that there were also stars.  I hold to my opinion that the subtlety of this adaptive accessory only lasts until children are of a certain kind of age, although that is not yet of concern for or to Ash.  The addition of white and black KidCompanions helps flesh out an otherwise pastel-schemed line, but the collection would certainly be “aged-up” overall, if it were ever possible to add more darker colors, a mix-and-match option when it comes to the softer rubber shape and the harder, contrasting “dots”, and/or some less matte finishes.  Upon examination, there will always be those who will find a lanyard-style necklace, plastic hardware, and a visible heart (the logo-linked heart is embossed on the “button”/”dot” on the front of the pendant, even when the pendant is of the circle design) to be too juvenile for the age of many children who will still need a tool like this, but time would certainly be bought by the use of color and light-play to distract from the appearance that even if the KidCompanions chewlery is styled like jewelry, it is meant to be chewed on.  Again, however, this only becomes a potential issue when the wearer gets beyond the age when there is a rampant trade in other rubber, collectable accessories.  Currently in the first grade in an integrated school program, Ash has not drawn any unwanted attention on behalf of his wearing or use of the product.  In fact, the only remark yet noted was one child asking why the teachers never told HIM to stop chewing on HIS necklace.  (For the record, although Ash was not interested in having a picture logo added to his lanyard, I was sent example samples of those as well, and the images were bright and clear.)

Durability: With the first set of KidCompanions sent to me, the hard button on the front of the pendant was unrecognizable by the first time Ash put the thing down.  It was intact, but so mashed and smashed and scuffed that it was quite clear it had been bitten….a lot.  The rest of the pendant showed subtle impressions from his teeth.  The dots on the back, being of the same harder plastic as the button on the front, also showed scuffing.  The lanyard and its labeling was completely saturated but not the least bit marred.  He actually didn’t even have to be discouraged from chewing on the clasp.  By one and then two weeks later, the results were the same.  It wasn’t until shortly before the recommended usage time of the product (a factoid I confess having lost track of my reference card for, at the moment — bad reviewer, bad, bad!) that it became damaged enough to need precautionary replacement.  The softer rubber outer-layer of the pendant, being thinner at the back, had begun splitting and peeling away from the edges of where all the little dots of the core material come through.  The heart, being easier to get an edge-to-edge bite down on than the circle, showed signs that if I was not careful, it would be bitten partially through first, of the two shapes, and from that, not the front-to-back direction.  A second set of KidCompanions was sent to me for testing after the formula for the pendant materials had been altered, and these held up even better.  The button on the front was dented after a week but not mangled, the shape no longer held the impressions of Ash’s teeth, and structural integrity at large slightly outlasted the recommended usage time.  Once again, it was the back which went first, in the form of the softer rubber starting to split away from the dots.  There was no sign that Ash was on his way to biting through the pendant proper.

Usability: We tend to keep four KidCompanions in action at all times.  One necklace stays at home, and Ash gets it himself when he wants it.  It tends to wait on his nightstand, because Ash often uses it for a concentrated oral fix to get it out of his system before bed, even when he hasn’t needed it through the day.  One necklace stays at school in Ash’s bin of spare changes, personal toiletries and therapeutic tools, and is given to him to wear when his staff see that he appears to need it.  One clip is attached to a tab on the inside-top of his backpack, so if nervous energy threatens to get the best of him while he’s on the bus, he can sit there with his backpack in his lap and fidget away.  One clip is attached to the cover of his car-seat.  Both break-away clasps and clips are all we could want from them.  The necklace kept at home (except for when Ash wears it while we’re out and about) is labeled on the inside for subtlety, with a personalized text label including his name and my cell phone number, and a medical ID label warning of his Autism.  The clip attached to his car seat and the clip attached to the inside of his backpack have the same, just one kind of label on each side.  The necklace which is kept at school is only labeled with his name.  The labels, which are fused on and then sealed down, have not proved irritating to Ash’s neck at all.  Although it is not yet necessary for Ash, I also know that everything could just as easily have any combination of the above, allergy alerts or picture logos.  If and when an Autism Awareness ribbon is ever added to the logo options, some of Ash’s future KidCompanions might sport that in place of the medical ID label.

Customer Service: Life has jaded me too much and too often for me to rave lightly, but I really applaud this company and the people behind it for their customer service and their customer care.  Both their dedication to quality, selection and accommodation and their continued striving for improvement, are commendable.  Everything is both planned and tested from the angle of special needs.  Inquiries into adjustments are welcomed and met whenever possible, instead of being treated as a insult and a waste of business time, as too many companies do.  Pierette sent whatever combination of pendant, lanyard and clasp color/style, and label format/location I specified as being best for Ash, and went out of her way to do things like make sure the coating over the labels was extra smooth for my extra-sensitive boy.  When I told her that Ash found the label on the lanyard visually distracting, she sent me another one with the label applied right next to the clasp in back, out of view.  Everything came to me reliably and in perfect and perfectly clean condition, complete with informational card for easy reference.  Although I did not have to pay for my samples, I would find it reasonable to do so, even with the international shipping from Canada to here in the USA.

I give the product four out of four stars for any child through elementary school age, and three out of four stars for any child older than that, because of the appearance issue.

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NOW THE BEST PART — A GIVEAWAY!!!

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Soft™Clothing review and summer giveaway

June 24, 2011 By 2 Comments

In honor of THIS AMAZING SUMMER KICK-OFF GIVEAWAY from Soft™Clothing and The SPD Blogger Network, I am re-publishing my review from last Spring.  Consider it the extended version of my telling you that the clothing included among the $250 worth of prizes really really really is worth setting your sights on, whether or not you’re lucky enough to win it.  Unfortunately, end-of-school-year-chaos delayed my posting this, but you still have until midnight tonight (6/24/11) to enter!  So go!  Go now!  Win the amazing collection of goodies and make me jealous!  Shoo!

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5 year old Ash breaks in his new favorite t-shirt at the playground....except it doesn't need breaking-in!

Our sensory kids face enough challenges.  The rules of the world seem to keep changing on them and the rules of their own bodies and minds seem to keep changing on the world, all while they are already having trouble getting the three to get along!  Imagine being that person, struggling just to make sense of the all the steps forward that require so much dedication and effort.  Now imagine that while you’re trying to focus in school, the tag at the neckline of your shirt makes you feel like you’re constantly getting poked hard in the head.  Imagine that while you’re being urged on in physical therapy, the bunching pockets of your pants make you feel like your thighs are on fire.  Imagine that the seams in your shirt feel like razors cutting into you when someone hugs them against you, making you flinch away from the affection before the deep pressure can soothe you.  You need to figure out how to function in the world, but you can’t even stand to get dressed to go out into it.

Now imagine that there was clothing available which was made from the softest, natural fabrics.  Imagine that it had flat seams, no tags, and bulky hems and pockets — that might otherwise bunch up — had been removed.  Imagine patterns cut to fit so that there was ample room for free movement, without so much excess fabric that it billows and twists around you.  Better yet, imagine that this clothing was as stylish as it was comfortable, and didn’t add to the social challenges that come from your special needs.

Imagine Soft™Clothing.  While still working on their Now also offering seamless socks and soon to offer seamless underwear, this company provides a variety of sensory-friendly clothing for boys and girls, both long and short, casual and suitable for uniformed or semi-dressy occasions.  The customer service is excellent, the quality is surprising (especially if you’re used to 5-times-hand-me-downs being the only clothing “broken in” enough for your child’s comfort), and the value defies the trend that products designed for a specialty market will priced too high for most of that specialty market to afford.

Ash wears his Nautical Striped Tee and normal jeans.

I wanted some for Ash.  I wanted some BAD.

Luckily for me — and for Ash — I was given the opportunity to review their Nautical Striped Tee the same day that I won a pair of their “Jeans” in a giveaway!  Both reached me at the same time, but the T-shirt got tested first, on its own.  The jeans were both too wide and far too long on my skinny boy, despite my thinking that I’d picked the right size, and because there are no belt-loops, there was just no way to keep them on him.  (So, if your child is in the 25th percentile for weight and between the 25th & 50th percentiles for height, like mine, keep the aforementioned in mine when choosing your pants size.) To the credit of the company, they completely took care of making sure I could get the smaller size instead.  In the meantime, Ash wore the shirt for the first time….very soon to be followed by the second, third, fourth, etc. times.  [insert the sound of the washing machine, here]

Ash feels so good he tries things at the playground he never has before -- in this case, climbing UP the slide.

I decided to give the shirt it’s first test-run on a day we’d be going to the playground.  Because Ash has started caring about what he wears from more than a tactile standpoint, and because I’m not any kind of masochistic, I lay out the Nautical Tee and another shirt, for him to pick between.  He felt both, as he considered.  Then (as if you haven’t guessed) he picked the one I was aiming to review.  “Y’want the soft stripy shirt, Mommy!” — how fitting.  Two hours of playground antics later, neither of us regretted the decision.  Despite the activity between warm sun and hot metal and plastic, Ash stayed cool and comfortable in the shirt.  He never ONCE tugged distractedly at either side of the neckline, or tried to adjust sleeves or sides that, if on most of his other shirts, would have been riding up, tugging, or twisting around him as he played.  Oh yes, we had a winner.  When we returned home and I discovered that the shirt had made it through these adventures without a single snag or stain, I was thinking more along the lines of a grand prize.  It’s a good thing that I didn’t feel the need to prolong this wardrobe relief by immediate application of stain-fighting prowess, too, because Ash only regretfully took the shirt off at bedtime.

The normal jeans he had been wearing, on the other hand, came off the second we were through our front door.

Ash runs to the playground. Normally he walks slowly, holding my hand, occasionally asking me to carry him.

Thankfully, it was not long before his new “Jeans” arrived.  These ones fit just fine, with a small cuff at the bottom.  In fact, it was novel to have a waistline that stayed on him without bunching around him.  Back to the playground we went.

Normally Ash walks slowly to the playground, holding my hand, and occasionally asking me to carry him.  He stops every few yards to shift around his pants, unsure of how to smooth the pockets, bending to scratch at where the seams rub against him, and then, inevitably, struggling to pull his pants back UP, as he’s managed to pull them half off of him while fussing.  Not so, in these pants.  He started off walking with me.  Then, he was walking faster.  Then, he asked for permission to run.  Those pants stayed up, falling off neither on their own nor because he kept tugging on them.  Pants — 1.  Skinny boy with SPD — 0.

Ash sits at the top of the slide. This is the best view of how the "Jeans" fit, overall.

I wondered if the material of the pants — thinner than that of normal denim jeans — would protect him enough from the sun-blasted playground equipment.  Ash tends to feel warm things against him, as being hot.  He seemed to have no problems.  I wondered if the material would hold up to the abusive friction put on them by a five year old that still crawls and scoots around, much of the time, the way a baby or young toddler might.  They showed no wear.  No stains, either.  He certainly moved around in them, too!  He might as well have been naked, for all that he paid attention to what he was wearing.  The wonderful thing is that he didn’t have to be!

And, in direct contrast to the time he wore the shirt but normal jeans, THIS TIME, the “jeans” were not stripped off….not even asked to be stripped off….until bedtime.

I give the shirt (received for free, for review) 5 out of 5 stars.  I give the “Jeans” (won in a giveaway) 4 out of 5 stars if they are for a girl, and 3 out of 5 stars if they are for a boy.  One star is lost for the difficulty in fitting, relative to size charts.  The other star is lost because they have an extremely slim fit, which passes for standard girl fashion more easily than it passes for standard boy fashion.  Still well worth it, relative to the fight to get typical clothes on, and keep them on.

 

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Please see my review of the Soft™Clothing seamless underwear!

Please see my alternative tactic customized Soft™Clothing shirt review!

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Tear-free haircuts for autistic and sensory boys

February 10, 2011 By 8 Comments

The typical haircut for boys involves staying still, being patient, following directions, strangers touching you, sharp things you’re not supposed to touch, lots of shiny distractions like running water and mirrors, bright lights, strange smells, scratchy feelings, tickly feelings, itchy feelings, loud, buzzing noises near your head….and if that wasn’t enough, things CHANGE.  If you have a typical boy with a typical hair style to maintain, that can already be daunting enough to get through (nevermind pay for) every few weeks.

If you have a boy with Autism and/or Sensory Processing Disorder, the whole affair is enough to send you screaming into another dimension — preferably one where a kid can blend in with his peers by having a lot of hair.

Ash didn’t have his first haircut until part-way through being three years old.  Blending in with peers wasn’t an issue, since he didn’t really have any.  We weren’t exactly concerned with him, “Looking more like a boy,” considering that whenever Steffan didn’t have to hack off his hair in the name of job hunts, he grew his long.  I found Ash’s wayward golden curls endearing, and wasn’t in any hurry to remove them.  And….ok….yes, when you got right down to it, we simply dreaded the thought of getting him through a haircut, let alone a first one.  We decided that we’d push (brave) the issue when and only when HE seemed to be annoyed by the length of his hair.

Ash in late August, 2008, shortly before his first haircut.  I remember a mother at the playground tried to scold me that day, for “confusing people” — apparently it wasn’t right for me to have a “beautiful child” with long hair, holding flowers, yet wearing all blue.

When the time came, we knew we’d have to attempt it at home.  At least there the feared disaster would be private, and wouldn’t waste money we didn’t have.  It might even be a little less of a disaster, because more of the elements of the direct experience and the sensory environment, could be controlled.  The question was — HOW would we do it at home?  When a child moves as spastically as Ash did (often enough, still does), mangling only a haircut with scissor-use is the least of your worries.  Cutters have less in the way of exposed blades and pointy bits, but they create a sound which can drill away at the nerves of someone who doesn’t have a sensory disorder.  Knawing his hair off with my teeth was not an option, as occasionally desperation presented it as, for the little, clipper-avoiding razors (I mean nails) he had as a baby.

Salvation came in the form of a “razor comb”, that first one a now-discontinued model made by Conair.  It was a vaguely rounded-squarish piece of plastic molded with comb-like teeth on two opposite sides, the teeth on the front and back of a side being different lengths relative to the blade sandwiched between them.  The end result was that you could evenly cut hair to four different lengths, based on which edge you held facing and moving down through the hair.  Further variation could be achieved by adjusting the angle, relative to the head, that you held the tool at.  Having also used this simple wonder to change my husband’s mid-back-long hair into a ‘business cut’, and he being able to express himself, I can confidently say that use of the razor comb generally felt no different (excepting falling bits of hair) than use of a normal comb.  If you didn’t rinse or brush the hair off it mid-haircut it might eventually do less smooth and fast a cutting job and a hair might catch and pull, but as the caught hair was against a blade, generally the pain lasted less time than it normally takes to deal with a tangle during normal hair-combing.  It was impossible to get anything but hair cut by the blade, and to sustain a puncture would you’d pretty much have to forcefully press a corner directly into the eye.  It was also extremely hard to mess up, no matter how someone failed to hold still — in fact, it was possible to get some of it done WHILE they were moving.

Ash after his first haircut.  Also featured in the photo are the then-ever-present Blankie (still a comfort object, but now only used at bedtime), the one-eyebrow-raise that Ash got from me, the disintegrating homemade couch a friend gave us, and to complete the home decor on the rental’s 80s-tastic rug, a box of paper recyclables that Ash got into.

I won’t tell you that the first haircut, even with the convenience of the razor comb, was the most easy-going, feel-good time that our family ever spent together.  It was a new experience, and Ash pretty much never handled any kind of new experience well, in those days.  Still, he got over it as soon as we were done, give or take feeling his own hair a little more than usual — which is pretty impressive, considering some parents I know report that their autistic sons go through a week or two of regressive fallout after each trip to the barber.


Going on three years of regular hair-trims later, we still give Ash his haircuts at home, and we still use a razor comb.  The razors in our old Conair one weren’t replaceable, so now we have a Seki Edge dial-a-cut styling razor haircutter.  One side is molded with standard comb teeth, and the other is molded  for a blended-length effect.  Adjusting the numbered dial in the middle shifts what holds the (replaceable) razor blades inside from one side to the other, allowing for a lot of customized control.  I used a fine-point sharpie to write notes on mine about what numbers I use, just to keep things consistent.  The handle can be locked at either angle to adjust for handedness or just general comfort, and the product opens easily to clean, dry, or change the blades.

I might just be in love with this thing.

I give Ash his haircut while he’s taking a bath, so that all the tickly bits can immediately be washed off of him.  It takes me perhaps two minutes total, with the Seki Edge, to give him almost his entire haircut, and he doesn’t complain. The only things I ever need to do with mini-scissors, and in installments to suit Ash’s capacity to keep still on any given day, are trimming around his ears (so that his hair doesn’t have to be shorter than he likes on the sides of his head, while still not brushing over his ears), and trimming his unavoidable, his-hair-grows-in-a-spiral-pattern bangs.  Occasionally he even asks for me to trim his hair, and people generally marvel that he’s able to handle us taking him to have it done professionally. *ahem*

Want to make the transition to easy haircuts, even easier?  If you think it would help your child, buy a scrap piece of some of that “fun fur” fabric with a long, plush nap, and let them stroke the razor comb through it to give it a hair-trim.  (We find the word “trim” is less trigger-happy than the word “cut” – it sounds less painful, and less drastic.) They can see how it will work, before you put it to work on them.

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Accidentally accessible product review: Amelia Bedelia and the literalism of Asperger’s

October 10, 2010 By 4 Comments

The young woman is left on her own with a list of things to do.  The elder couple is fully confident that their instructions are simple and straightforward, and that as long as the young woman does everything on the list, she will have done her job well.  Ready to begin, though, she immediately becomes distracted by her surroundings.  When she pulls herself free of that reverie for the 2nd time, her intentions to get to work, and her desire to please, quickly shift off-track to a sweet and helpful gesture of that is nevertheless not on her list of chores.  It is only when she must wait before being able to complete that project – something she almost doesn’t remember to do in time – that she turns to her assigned tasks.

Unfortunately, none of the seven simple instructions make any sense to her.  Oh, it isn’t that she doesn’t know how to do them; she just doesn’t understand why she is being asked to do them in the first place, instead of certain other things.  Nevertheless, she wants to make a good impression, so she tries to best to do what she thinks is expected of her.  She changes the towels (by cutting designs into them), dusts the furniture (using the “Dusting Powder” from the bathroom makes them smell lovely), draws the drapes (on a big piece of paper), puts out the lights (onto the drying rack in the garden), measures two cups of rice (with a measuring tape, before pouring them back into the box), trims the fat on the steak (with ribbons) and dresses the chicken (like a boy).  When her efforts are met with shock upon the return of the elder couple, she continues obliviously to relate her accomplishments with enthusiasm and pride.

Does this sound familiar?  If it does, does it remind you of someone with Asperger’s Syndrome? Or, perhaps, does it remind you of the title character in Amelia Bedelia?  As soon as I rediscovered this old treasure while hunting for books our son hadn’t read yet, I had the feeling people aught to be reminded of both.  Amelia Bedelia is a children’s book (written by Peggy Parish and illustrated by Fritz Siebel) originally published in 1963, and recently reissued as “An I Can Read Book” at Level 2, for grades 1-3.  I’m not sure the author had anything in mind aside from telling an amusing story about what happens when someone takes things literally, and yet, I dub the work “accidentally accessible” because I think it would be wonderful to use with a child who has Asperger’s, or in a classroom that a student with Asperger’s is integrated into.

The reason I find the work appropriate for efforts of increasing awareness, understanding and acceptance of Asperger’s Syndrome, is that while the tone of the story is humorous, the character herself is not being made fun of. The entire context of the tale is compassionate towards her actions.  Poor Amelia is left alone immediately on her first day of work, with no opportunity to ask questions, only the instructions to, “Do just what the list says.”  She recognizes that what the list says does not seem predictable or practical, in fact finds some of the instructions to be “silly” – but despite her being aware of the more common counterparts to the instructions and capable of fulfilling those, she considers her following of the instructions as they were written to be both her responsibility and an open-mindedness towards everyone having their own way of doing things. She is motivated by a desire to please, and is ready to learn from everything she does.  The only thing really working against her is that she is unable to recognize the intended meaning behind the literal language of the written instructions, or in her verbal instructions to follow those.

In the end, anger at her mistakes in terms of every single instruction, dissolves in the face of her lemon meringue pie (ironically enough, the one thing she did which was in no way on the list of instructions), an easy enough metaphor for all the best she has to offer.  In their recognition of the value of that, and their desire to not lose it, the couple that Amelia was working for decides to change their habits to accommodate her disadvantage.  They learn to write instructions in a way that literally matches what they actually mean, and they consider the benefits of knowing her enough to keep them from caring about any remaining ‘quirks’ that come with her.  A simple gesture on their part allows them to work together and relate to each other smoothly and happily.

I consider that a message worth reading about.

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Accidentally accessible product review: AutoSeal® Kids Tumblers – Part 3

June 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is the set that ThinkGeek.com sent to me, for review.

This is the final segment of a three-part review of AutoSeal® Kids Tumblers.  Please read Part 1 and Part 2 for important and exciting information about this product, before moving on to the personal experience side of things here.  Thanks!

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When I first learned about the AutoSeal® Kids Tumblers, I really did hear that proverbial chorus of Angels bursting into song, in my head.  When ThinkGeek sent me a set for review, I might as well have been dancing in the clouds.

Within the general context of my son Ash’s development, the cups held perfect promise.  He is five years old, and for some time now has shown interest in moving beyond the straw-sippies he’s been using for years.  Unfortunately, between his Autism, his Sensory Processing Disorder, and his suspected mild Cerebral Palsy (frightfully common “rare diseases“), he had never come close to the skills needed to do so.  Also, maintenance of his health relies strongly on a diet consumed largely in smoothie form, which is too thick to go through the tiny openings in spout-sippies and those sporty water bottles; this cut down on the options for transitional training cups.  For two years now we had let him try drinking from a standard cup whenever he was interested, usually just with water in it (for damage control) — but he never got much practice in, since no matter how we did things, he always managed to soak himself from head to toe within the first few seconds, and that was enough of that, as far as he was concerned, until the next occasion.

Timing is always an interesting thing, though, and before my sample cups were long unwrapped, we had a new and greater context for being desperate for their miracles.  Ash, who has always had issues with eating but who has at least never had any trouble drinking, suddenly went on his very first ‘thirst strike’ of sorts.  For reasons we were never able to completely decipher, he suddenly refused to drink anything, of any flavor or thickness, from his straw-sippies or any of the other forms of cups that were familiar to him.  This would prove problematic with any child, let alone a child living where the days are moving towards Summer heat, but it was all-out dangerous for Ash, who at that point was not ingesting ANYTHING except via drinking it (until the day this started, when he didn’t even do that).  For most of a week, he essentially both starved and dehydrated himself.  One night we managed to avoid needing an IV for him only by force-syringing fortified fluids into him.  Another day we avoided one only because the Dr. who saw us didn’t agree with us about how serious it was.

Then, the miracle happened.  While my husband and I waited not-quite-patiently for our Autism Feeding/Nutritionist referral to come through, and tried to think calmly about the future prospects of feeding tubes….Ash decided one bedtime that he was interested in drinking, from that new blue/green cup with the button.  Buttons are cool.  And hey, he could read “AutoSeal” on the button, and reading is fun.  As it turned out, drinking from the cup was all kinds of good times, as well.  For a start, he didn’t have to sit still and be careful, two things his brain rarely let his body be very good at.

That first time he tried his AutoSeal cup, he spent about two hours drinking from it.  In that time, I refilled the cup three or four times, and estimate about 2 cups’ worth of the total liquid contents (he wanted just water, at the time) got into his stomach.  After the first cup, the natural personality of my child came back with the relatively drastic increase in hydration.  He’d spent the last week increasingly lethargic, empty of the energy or focus to do more than snuggle limply.  Suddenly he felt so good in contrast that he was back to grinning and laughing, being silly and being impish, running and climbing and jumping and playing, singing and talking and…………….ohhhhhhh, let me tell you, he could have never touched one of those cups again, and still I would’ve wanted to gold-plate it and built it an altar.

I will tell you, too, that despite the fact that the cup was waved, thrown, bonked, rolled, dropped, pushed, and occasionally even held on to while he went through euphoric gymnastic routines — not once did water come out of that cup, except when he was experimenting with drinking from it (while doing gymnastics routines).  Also, not once did he manage to injure himself on the cup in the process, injure me with the cup in the process, or damage anything else around him with the cup in the process.  Pretty impressive.

Since that night, Ash has been drinking from his AutoSeal cup, and nothing but his AutoSeal cup.  The morning after first drinking water from it, he felt ready to drink milk from it, and he has since and so far expanded his liquid diet back to all but the thickest smoothies I used to make him — with the addition of some fortified protein powder to compensate for that, his intake has still been good enough to allow him to regain the weight he lost over his week of fasting, restock his body’s stores of water and nutrients, and return to normal voiding.  Over the span of just a few days, his mastery of the cup increased such that he went from tiring from the effort of drinking 1/4 of a cup, and that taking him a half hour, to him being able to down a full cup almost effortlessly, in a little under ten minutes.  He became able to drink from the cup entirely by himself – from the first little sips, to the big gulps that make him smile proudly in the middle, to draining the dregs — although his hands are small enough and his motor control unreliable enough that he still feels most comfortable holding the cup with two hands, using one to hold the cup and manipulate the button, and the other for added grip support when he tilts deeply.  At first, he had me hold a towel under his chin to catch the “waterfalls” that happened when he forgot to seal his lips well enough, or move the liquid to the back of his mouth for swallowing, often enough; after just those few days, a washcloth in his lap was all that was needed, and that used largely as a napkin to compulsively wipe his chin and lower lip, subject to rollover moisture because of his overbite, and unused to getting wet while drinking, since previously a straw brought the liquid directly to the middle of his mouth.  That’s right, no more spills, even while drinking.

It could be the overly confident guess of a freshly optimistic mommy, but I dare say after a full week using this cup, he might even prove ready to turn to mastering a standard cup. We won’t find out, though, not yet.  He’s enjoying this too much.  The developmental progress is significant.  And, besides, these cups TRAVEL nicely, already filled.

These cups deliver exactly what’s promised.  Depending on your circumstances, they deliver so much more.  The only reason I am giving them only four out of five stars is that they are not insulated.  As Contigo, the manufacturer of the cups, makes others that are insulated via the double-wall technique, and an extra layer of plastic doesn’t add much weight, I have trouble imagining why the kid’s cups are not insulated, as that’s generally a feature people are willing to pay for.

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Accidentally accessible product review: AutoSeal® Kids Tumblers – Part 2

June 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is a continuation of Part 1 of the same review of AutoSeal® Kids Tumblers.  Please refer back before reading this part of the feature.

Ash uses his new, favorite "Blue-Green cup" :-)

So…what are the rest of the careful little details that help take this cup from amazing to oh-my-AWESOME?

  • The button which opens the seal on the drinking hole does not stick out except for one just-slightly convex & very small bump in the middle, which means it’s a lot harder for the button to be pushed and spills made possible, by accident, despite the large size of the button which makes it easier for any size hands to use.  The cup can be rolled along the floor, and that button is flush enough with the rest of the surface that it does not get affected.  I know — Ash tested it quite thoroughly.
  • The lid is molded with an almost perfect flattened circular rim, with only a slight raise to the part where the drinking hole is.  While fluid is still only going to come out of that one spot, the mouth is still trained, while drinking from this cup, to close around the lid with almost the exact mechanics needed to drink effectively from a standard cup.
  • The lid is molded with a shallow dip from rim to the rest of the capping surface, and no indentation opposite the drinking hole to give extra space for a nose, which means that if the cup is held and moved in a way that would be over-tilting in a standard cup, the lid will smush into the child’s upper lip and nose. While not painful, one would imagine that this is annoying, which discourages the habit and further trains effective drinking skills.
  • The unsealed drinking hole, which liquid then flows freely to, is just large enough that the cup can be used to drink thicker fluids, such as shakes or smoothies, which for some special needs children are the only way to sneak more food content into their diet.
  • Because the unsealing of the drinking hole is triggered by the depressing of a button, liquid flow has a certain degree of controlled variation, unlike cups that “close” with something that simply flips or pops out of the way.  This makes it easier to learn how to drink from the cup, because confidence can be gained on a weaker flow before a stronger flow, in relation to any stage in the mechanics of drinking. Likewise, while confidence is still being gained, it is easier for a child to adjust what they are doing when they realize something isn’t quite working, by partially or completely releasing the button to cut off flow, regardless of what position they are holding.  This seems particularly useful when it comes to working out the timing of tilt adjustments and swallowing, when you’re getting used to drinking a bunch at once, and not just one isolated sip at a time.

The nature of the cup’s mechanics also makes it very easy for parents to guide the early learning stages of drinking from it, should their child require some hand-over-hand to initiate motor planning.  One hand on the cup, over the child’s hand or hands, can assist in tilt control and help clue when to depress and when to release the button….and, over time, simply do less and less of the ‘work’.  If the child needs that kind of guidance but is bothered by that kind of physical contact, the same can be accomplished by the adult putting one hand around the bottom of the cup, with one finger on the lower end of the button, while the child grasps the cup higher towards the lid, with their fingers over the rest of the button.

Please check out Part 3 for the last section of this review, and my own experiences testing the product on my son!

 

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