Massaging Action Teether Review/Giveaway

Ok everyone this is my first review/giveaway here on the SPD Life. Thanks to the generosity of One Step Ahead I received a Massaging Action Teether to do a review and giveaway on. The Massaging Action Teether is not only for infants, it is great for children with SPD too! It vibrates when the child bites or chews on it and helps give your child oral input. And of course it's also really good for those teething babies.

Now I know that you all have children with SPD issues but for those of you whose child(ren) have issues with oral gratification (i.e. over stuffing their mouths with food, chewing on non-edible objects, etc.) this is a wonderful product to try. Little Miss mouths everything! Her therapists have told me that getting her a vibrating toothbrush or teether would be good to help give her input so that she won't over fill her mouth while eating and it would curb her chewing on toys and such. One Step Ahead has even partnered up with the National Lekotek Center —the leading not-for-profit authority on play for children with disabilities—to offer a different kind of toy selection. Click here to view their toys and ratings.

When we got this Massaging Action Teether in the mail I cleaned it up and gave it to Little Miss and I sat down to see what she would do with it and waited for her reaction to the vibrations. SHE.LOVED.IT! She walked around with it between her teeth for a long time, just enjoying the vibrations. She has been chewing on it everyday since we received it. This is something safe for her to chew on. No toxic chemicals and no small pieces to break off that she could choke on. Plus it's soft, multi-textured and the sealed internal battery lasts 8 hours! At only $7.95 they're a great buy but this is your chance to win one for free. One Step Ahead is going to give one of you lucky readers one of these! Here's how you can enter to win:

Mandatory Entry:

~ Go over to One Step Ahead and come back and tell me in a comment your favorite product. (3 entries)

Extra Entries:

~ Blog about this review/giveaway with links back to this post and One Step Ahead.
(5 entries)

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(3 entries)

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(3 entries)

~ Follow the SPD Life
(3 entries)

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(1 entry)

~ Tweet about this review/giveaway
(unlimited entries)

* We are trying to get more followers to join us here. If you know anyone that has a child with SPD or sensory issues please send them here to join in on the review/giveaway or just the blog. Or if you belong to any mom boards, sites or forums please do a post letting them know where to find us. Doing this (after verified) will give you 5 more entry points!

*Each time you do one of the above leave a comment for each entry. For example if you blog about this giveaway do this: "Blogged about this review/giveaway. Here's my link: (Your URL TO the post) #1" Then come back and do the same thing 4 more times in separate comments. If you tweet about this review/giveaway then leave the tweet URL in the comment.

You have the chance to do 12 + entries. You don't have to do all of them though. Do the first one or all of them if you want! First Mandatory Entry must be done first to enter the rest of the entry requests.

Contest will end on April 30th and winner will be picked using the Random.com generator and announced on April 6th. Good luck!

Any comments that do not follow the rules listed above will not be entered into the contest to win. So please make sure to follow the rules. Thanks!

*Check back because I will be doing more giveaways and reviews on products that benefit children with sensory issues and more!

Nothing Feels Right

My son Zach has issues with clothing. Tags, seams, stray threads, these things all bother him immensely. I understand to a point because I have issues with tags and seams as well. His sensory issues in this department far surpass mine though. Tagless t-shirts are the best thing since sliced bread in our house. Some still have the tag on the side that bothers us, but it's not as bad as having it on your neck. Now if the sock manufacturers would just get the memo and make their seams thinner across the toes, we'd be all set.

Here's how we've minimized the clothing sensory issues in our house. Besides tagless t-shirts, we went through a phase when Zach first started school all day where he had to get dressed the night before. He would put on his clothes for the next day before going to bed and sleep in them. For whatever reason they felt OK at night, but to put the exact same outfit on in the morning was a battle. He would literally try on every piece of clothing he had and deem that it "didn't feel right." This also allowed him to sleep in longer since we didn't have to spend 30-45 minutes each morning getting him dressed. He woke up ready to go eat breakfast.

For socks, once I find a brand Zach deems worthy, I don't stray. Another thing we do is turn them inside out to put the bulk of the seam on the outside. For shoes, we've found that regular ol' shoes with laces give the best fit. Of course any time you can find the softest material, you're better of. I try to stick to 100% cotton when I can.

Do you have any tricks for your kids who have clothing issues?

Some suggestions from my O.T.

One of my little man's MAIN triggers come from when we're out in public. He hates noise, bright lights, extra. We're almost always guaranteed a melt down when he goes anywhere in public, and it's gotten to be pretty awful taking him out anywhere.

When I told his O.T. this last week, she had a good suggestion -- putting a hat on him to block out the bright lights, as well as putting either headphones, ear plugs, or a pair of ear muffs on him to block out the sound. I heard this, and I had to chuckle. While it *is* a good idea (and I know this sounds lame), but I'm worried about the looks he'll get from other parents and kids while we're out in public while he's dressed in his sensory blocking outfit! We get enough nasty looks as it is, when we're out and he's hitting or pinching me, and I just can't stand anymore nasty looks.

So Stefanie had a good idea -- a small Mp3 player that he can listen to! I think that's a wonderful idea, and I'm going to go out today and look for some that are cheap enough and durable enough for him. He likes to listen to his big brother's MP3 players, so I think he'd love to have one of his own.

AND, he can still wear a baseball cap in public without getting too many stares! I have noticed that when he gets overwhelmed, if he has his favorite Spongebob knit hat near him, he'll put that hat on and pull it down as far as he can, so it almost covers his eyes and covers his ears, and he'll go about playing with his toys. I guess that's his way of blocking out the 'scary stuff' around him.