Tackling Allergies and Acting Up

It's Spring, and we've had a dry Winter, followed by fits of light rain. It's made for a horrible allergy season. On top of that there are several vineyards and a horse stable in back of us. The grasses, blooms, spraying, plowing, and wind have all combined to wreak havoc on our sinuses, throats, and noses.

Indoor trampoline is still a huge help

James has been shaking his head back and forth, like he has water in his ear. He has been sticking inappropriate items in his mouth and chewing them again. For a bit I wondered if it was related to some of the behavioural issues he's been having recently. While that might still be the case, my own pounding sinuses and watering eyes are giving me new possibilities to entertain.

So I have been giving him a couple of warm, steamy baths a week and used some generic nasal sprays that both clear out his nose and give him some basic allergy relief before he goes to school. I have changed our air intake filter in our home.

Now we are starting on the first week of real rain that we've had in a while. James has also been inside a lot more than usual these past two days. Now he's going stir crazy. He runs about at home, on the playground, and even in the O/T room and hides, runs, and refuses to cooperate with the adults when the time comes to calm down and transition to another task.

While this week is a slight improvement over the one before, it's still more to manage. I am tackling it with verbal/visual warnings (counting to 3 with words and fingers) and using his Activity board.

His Aide has started using a checklist to track behaviours and tasks. If he gets too many sad faces, then he knows he loses time on his iPad. His Aide is getting an Activity board for school tomorrow. I hope it will help.

        

Activity Board for home

School checklist

Strangely, writing spelling words is still a great focusing activity for James. And he is really getting into his own bedtime reading session -- both me to him and him to me.

All this organizing and managing seems quite appropriate to me for a Tackle It Tuesday entry. Be inspired, or share your story.