Sniffing

Right before he was evaluated for Special Education services, DS started sniffing everything. He smells things you would expect him to want to smell (food, plants, etc.), but he also insists on sniffing things that have little odor (the slide at school), dirt, and he will try to smell the pavement in the parking lot. Basically, we have not been making a big deal about the sniffing--if it's something gross or dangerous (like the parking lot), he can't do it, but otherwise, we don't comment.

He has started OT services, and I will talk to the OT about handling this later in the week when he has his next session. The one thing I've found that seems to help is to give him a scratch and sniff sticker in his pocket that he can smell anytime he feels he needs to smell something. Then he usually sniffs the sticker and not other things.

Has anyone else experienced this? Just curious what you did or didn't do to deal with it.

Edited to mention--DS has PDD-NOS and sensory integration issues.

Message edited 5/16/2011 7:59:47 PM.

Re: Sniffing

i had some kids in my classes that also liked to smell things. to redirect we used verbal prompts or we used smelly: lotion, stickers, stamps, pencils, erasers and markers (stuff ok for the desk). they even have smelly plastic jewlery.

Message edited 5/16/2011 9:02:36 PM.

Re: Sniffing

I work with a little one who's experiencing the same sensory cravings and we put together two boxes of scented mineral oils...one with calming scents (i.e. lavender) and one for awakening and alerting scents (lemon eucalyptus, peppermint) and depending on the activity mom will rub the scent onto a cloth or perhaps onto the transitional object that the child is holding, and select scents based on whether he's presenting as over or under responsive to stimuli...we also do relaxation techniques to bring his system down and we've started using scented lotions when mom gives massage...The sniffing has reduced drastically since we began doing this. HTH

Re: Sniffing

Thanks for the suggestions! Okay, so for now anyway, I will keep giving him his scented sticker. The oils are a good idea too, though we'd probably have to do that at home.

And I'll talk to his OT. She did say as she gets to know him more, she will design a sensory diet for him, so this as well as the other work she is doing will probably help in time.