Day 13

It’s been a rough couple of weeks with this boy! His behavior challenges have challenged us to come up with deterrents and distractions; not always an easy thing to do.

We have this sweet (most of the time) little guy who has no real form of communication, trying desperately to communicate something! The messages he’s been trying to send recently, still unclear, demand immediate intervention.

Josiah has been banging his head so hard on the kitchen table and ceramic counter top, he quickly developed a goose egg on his forehead. Sitting next to him every single second when he’s near a firm surface is nearly impossible.  If it were possible, catching the potential head banging behavior in time to block it is still very tricky. He’s fast.

The only solution I could think of was to keep him away from the kitchen table, where most of the head banging occurred.  However, Josiah defaults to his spot at the table instinctively.  If he’s not sitting on the floor, rubbing his hands across the carpet, or bouncing on the trampoline in his bedroom, you can pretty much guess he will be waiting at the table.

Josiah is a smart kid.  He figured out long ago, good things happen when you wait at the table. Wait long enough and eventually, someone will come from somewhere and bring you something to eat.  So, he sits and he waits.  Breaking that habit isn’t easy.  But waiting at the table when you are in whatever this phase Josiah is in right now, that precipitates self injurious behavior is not a good thing.  Bang, bang, bang, you hear his head as it sharply raps against the wood.  It truly is heartbreaking.

So, I race over and pull Josiah’s stool away from the table to deter him while he waits for his meal.  He pushes it right back.  I pull it away.  He pushes it back.  You get the picture.  The more I pull it away, the angrier he gets which makes him bang his head against the table again. It’s a viscous cycle.

Though his teachers at school had success with keeping Josiah’s helmet on him for a little over 2 hours on Thursday, at home it was off in .02 seconds.  I knew the helmet wasn’t our answer.  A very thoughtful Hobby Lobby employee suggested I search a hardware store for something appropriate to cushion our table, as I stood in line to purchase foam batting and some waterproof fabric.  I gave her a Reader’s Digest version of our situation, not sure the choices I laid before her were the right ones. They weren’t.  So off I went to Home Depot.

I was able to get a thick piece of foam core type insulation, completely washable.  I added thick strips of industrial strength velcro to the back and adhered it to the table.  As you can see in the pictures above, Josiah was not too sure about this new pink addition to his favorite space at the table.  He stared at it. He tried to push it away.  He attempted to yank it off.  Eventually, he decided it wasn’t so bad and left it alone.

That was 2 days ago.  We left for an out of town wedding the very next morning.  Josiah’s incredibly, amazing, phenomenal (what would we do without her, can you tell how much we love her) Heaven sent caregiver is at home with him.  I don’t know what to expect when we get home. I have no idea if the padding is still in place.  By now Josiah could be gnawing on the edge of it or gradually ripping off small pieces as he sits and waits. He could have loosened the velcro completely and tore it off.

No worries.  Josiah’s got a smart mom.  At only $5 a sheet, I bought 2.