Why SPD?

In case anyone is wondering why I agree with the SPD diagnosis...

My daughter has always been very picky about her clothes and shoes. The past year and a half it has really escalated. She has 2 pairs of jeans that she will wear, and on some days even those drive her crazy. When I take her shoe shopping, she will try on literally 20-something pairs at 4 different stores and still not find a pair that "feels right". She has to have her shoes on very tight - if she had her way, she's wear a size smaller than she actually needs. She has been wearing a size 12 for a while now. After much searching we finally found a pair of shoes for her this summer, that she rarely complained about. She wore those shoes out playing outside, so we went to find new ones. After many hours of searching, we finally ended up buying the exact same shoes she wore out, in the exact same size. The shoes are maybe a month old now and most days she completely melts down when she has to put on her shoes because they aren't tight enough. She stretches the velcro so tight all the time that the straps are too stretched out to fasten anymore, unless she doesn't pull them really tight, which she just can't handle.

She has been late for school once already this year because she had a huge tantrum over her jeans not being tight enough. The same adjustable waist jeans she has been wearing for the past 6 months or more, and have been patched on the knees because we cannot find new jeans that don't drive her absolutely insane.

I had to take her to the counselor's office once already this year with us both in tears because her shoes were "not tight enough" and after 20 minutes of it at home I finally had to get her in the car and drive to school with us both crying. She refused to go to class because her shoes didn't feel right - the counselor and I did get her to go, but she ended up going with her shoes unfastened until recess.

Oh, and when I say she melts down over these things, I mean that the instant she puts on the "offensive" item, she will start wriggling all around, whining, trying to fidget it into just the right spot so it feels right, to no avail, and she will quickly progress to screaming and crying. With her shoes she will stomp her feet and practically dance around trying to make them feel better. She will adjust them a million times. Most days she leaves for school still "grumping" about her shoes.

So apparently, this whole SPD thing would mean that these "tantrums" as we call them are not her being stubborn, they are because the shoes or jeans or whatever are literally driving her crazy. Her nervous system or brain can't process things properly so it can feel to her as if there are nails in her shoes or pins on her jeans. Let me tell you, it is so hard when she is having these fits, because there is nothing we can do! She has to wear clothes, and she has to wear shoes. We have no choice right now but to force her to wear what is obviously causing her extreme discomfort. If we do get the official diagnosis of SPD, she will go to Occupational Therapy and we will also likely be taught how to "brush" her to retrain her nervous system to handle different sensations properly.

Here's a site that has a lot of great information...
http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/index.html