Children and Illness: The Aftermath
As I am still making my way out of the wreckage left behind by a stomach bug that made its way through every member of my large family, it dawned on me.
Taking care of neurodiverse children in bouts of sickness can be a different experience than that of an average child.
Perhaps not for all of them, but depending on their needs, there can be a much bigger struggle to contend with than just nursing them back to health.
The most glaring battle I had was with my nonverbal autistic son. As he was curled up and crying the most pitiful sound, my heart broke.
Kids this young don’t understand what a virus is.
Why is this happening?
What is this awful feeling?
Will it ever end?
Being unable to express what exactly hurts him at any given moment or how he feels leaves me feeling utterly helpless.
Non-verbal Children and Illness
He was the first to suffer the terror of this particular virus.
So, until he started spewing like a toxic volcano , I had no idea what was wrong.
How can I help him when I have no idea what’s upsetting him and he can’t tell me?
Even once he starts doing his best impression of the girl in The Exorcist Movies, there really isn’t a whole lot I can do to stop it.
A virus is going to have to run it’s course no matter what you do.
It sucks.
He just kept looking to me for help, the pleading in his eyes begging me to make it better.
And I couldn’t.
It was heartbreaking.
The Virus Spreads
My daughter, with a multitude of sensory issues, fell sick a few hours later,
and oh man the terror.
Neurodiverse sensory issues in children and illness that you can’t control is just a nightmare.
The general pain and gnawing in your gut when you have a bug like this was driving her up the walls.
She kept crying and yelling about how uncomfortable she was,
asking me to make it stop.
She hated having to keep a pot near her bed
because its proximity to her made her uncomfortable.
Just the actual sound she made when retching made her cry even harder, as she complained about it between breaths.
No blanket, bed, couch, pillow, or anything else we tried, was comfortable for her as her sensory issues were being completely stomped on by this illness.
She spent the time tossing and turning, getting up and down, and rearranging her bedding repeatedly while crying and trying to sleep until it was over.
The list goes on.
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Illness, Just One more thing that seems harder
All I could think about was how miserable an average person or child with illness might be, then add in any variant of possible additional neurodiverse situations, and it raises that to a new level of torture for these children and others like them.
As a mom to children like this, it’s just another level of extra everything we have to add to our daily lives.
As if there weren’t already enough other struggles to deal with.
I get myself through it by reminding myself that dealing with children and illness is just a part of life, and they will be ok once it’s over. Thankfully, this was relatively short-lived.
Any tips for the parents?
What about the next time?
If anyone out there has any mom hints, tips, tricks, or hacks for dealing with neurodiverse children and illnesses, I am all ears because so far, I’ve got nada.
This simply becomes a buckle-in and survive type of situation.
Maybe that’s the only option, but I can always hope for the better.
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