Thoughts on academic work causing tiredness due to BPI?

[Mom2Michael]

As some background, Michael (ROBPI) is 4 years old and recently started preschool again (his preschool runs on the same schedule as the public school system - so it started at the beginning of Sept). In order to help him transition to full day K next year, I enrolled him 3 full days (9:15-2:00). Last year, he went 4 days - 2 days were 9:15-1:00 and 2 were 9:15-11:45.

He has been complaining of being very tired (he hangs on my shirt and sucks his thumb or simply lies down on the rug at school) since school started (but won't nap at all). I was talking about it with his teacher this am (she taught him 1 day a week last year, so she knows him) and she said that she had discussed it with the director (who was his teacher last year) and they were wondering if the increased academic challlenges are causing the tiredness. They are writing, cutting, drawing, painting and doing sign language every day. I should mention that they aren't having the problem with any of the other kids to the extreme that they are having it with Michael.

What do you think? He has very good function/range and hasn't been in formal therapy for 1.5 years but likes sports of all sorts (basketball, football, golf, baseball) and plays something most every day so I kind of let him do his own therapy, if you will.

Has anyone else had a situation like this?

Thanks - I appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.

Sally

BTW, FWIW, he had the Mod Quad at 13 months old.

[needmorshoes]

It does not sound like this is related to BPI to me. It sounds like he has not adjusted to the increased demands of preschool; I have a child (non BPI) that behaves like this whenever there is change. It is especially bad at the start of a new school year. I would just try to help him cope that best way that you can, and comfort him when he needs it. It has been my experience that this will pass once he gets more settled into the school year. Good luck!

[admin]

Your post triggered a lot of thoughts about this. First of all, it can be just this new experience and new pressures on him. Kids get tired sometimes when they start school. But here's the list of other possibilities I came up with:

(1) is he using his dominant or non-dominant hand OR his injured or non-injured hand for writing and art? If he's using his injured hand to write, then this should could be very tiring. If he's using his non-dominant hand then this could be VERY (extremely) tiring.

(2) have you had his vision checked? my eldest daughter was tired in class and it turned out that it was her vision. It gave her headaches, eye aches and she shut down.

(3) my child with bpi has diaphragm involvement. The symptoms were tiredness and reduced function. A pulmonary function test was given to show that her issues were severe and it could not be detected audibly (meaning no wheezing like asthma). But when she tires out and loses function, that's the telltale.

(4) could he be allergic to something in the room. sometimes this can cause tiredness

(5) could he have sensory integration issues and the bright lights and the environment is causing him to shut down?

and then of course there's the normal questions like what is he eating for breakfast? could he be having blood sugar issues? is he getting to bed early enough? any change in his sleep patterns and more

good luck trying to figure this out

[Mom2Michael]

Thanks to both of you. I appreciate the thoughts and the time to suggest them to me!

Hopefully, he'll be feeling better soon!

Sally

[Mom2Michael]

Ooops - that would be "the time you took out of your schedules" to...