We are having exceptionally hot weather in our area this week with temperatures in the mid to upper 90s and heat indexes over 100. It is no coincidence that our son has had two of his worst days at school.
My wife used to live in Singapore where weather like this is typical. But even she can’t stand all this heat and humidity. And Kai seems to be affected by it more than most.
He sweats easily. He gets upset even quicker than usual.
His karate dojo is not air-conditioned and at his latest class, Kai was more irritated by the heat than the other kids. He wanted more breaks than Sensei was willing to give, and Kai complained, something that is not tolerated.
At school, his teacher emailed to say that they had given him plenty of cold water to drink and even allowed him to carry ice packs with him when they went outside to walk over to the building where PE is held. But, despite that, he still had a lot of trouble participating along with the rest of the group.
It often seems that Kai, like many kids on the autism spectrum, are like finely tuned instruments that cannot handle any change in conditions. On a day like this, there’s not a whole lot we can do.
We have one more hot day today. Then, hopefully, the predicted cool off will kick in.
In the meantime, I'll try to stay cool. I’m the one sitting on the A/C vent listening to '70s music and brainstorming ideas about my keeping my son regulated.
We are the same way in our family. Cold is no problem...when it comes to heat and humidity...we all suffer. Although, in our area it is not so humid...during heat waves...we carried a spray bottle to spritz my son's face and hair. We also used a cool pack head band (2 different types - one uses a frozen blue ice pack - another uses an evaporative cooling gel similar to ones used to bring down fever).
ReplyDeleteWe, of course, had him drink...before he got thirsty...the goal being to keep the urine output coloration always running clear.
We have not tried the cool pack headbands but it sounds like a great idea! Kai's school is open to suggestions so I'll have to see if they can keep it in fridge there for him to use at PE.
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