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Answering a listener’s question in today’s episode:
“I’d love it if you guys could dedicate an episode to all things relating to PERIODS.
As my daughter is 11, I’m staring down the road and see this major life event looming in our near future.
From fear of menstrual blood, practical info for pad wear and hygiene, underwear, social stories, etc. I would love all the info I can get as I want to help my daughter transition this and other puberty milestones to the best of my ability.”
This episode is full of tips and tricks for anyone navigating menstruation!
Shop During Harkla’s 12 Days of Christmas SALE! Save 12% on ANY order! Shop and Save Until Dec. 12, 2023! https://harkla.co/pages/12-days
Answering a listener’s question in today’s episode:
“I’d love it if you guys could dedicate an episode to all things relating to PERIODS.
As my daughter is 11, I’m staring down the road and see this major life event looming in our near future.
From fear of menstrual blood, practical info for pad wear and hygiene, underwear, social stories, etc. I would love all the info I can get as I want to help my daughter transition this and other puberty milestones to the best of my ability.”
This episode is full of tips and tricks for anyone navigating menstruation!
Creating some sort of toolkit that she can take in her bag to school or to outings, to the store ,to the park, wherever she's going and have that plan in place for if there is an accident. This kind of goes along back with the visual schedule. So she has her toolkit so she has extra underwear, she has a extra change of pants, she has extra pads, tampons, whatever she's using, plus the visual schedule key ring of what to do if she does have an accident. If you can figure out a way that it's small enough that she can take it everywhere she goes would be super helpful.
Rachel:
I'm Rachel.
Jessica:
And I'm Jessica. And this is All Things Sensory by Harkla.
Rachel:
We are both certified occupational therapy assistants and together with Harkla, we are on a mission to empower parents, therapists and educators to help raise confident and strong children of all abilities.
Jessica:
On this podcast, we chat about all things sensory, diving into special needs, occupational therapy, parenting, self care, overall health and wellness and so much more.
Rachel:
We're here to provide raw, honest and fun strategies, ideas and information for parents, therapists and educators as well as other professionals to implement into daily life. Thank you so much for joining us.
Jessica:
Before we jump into today's episode, we want to let you know that our Holiday Sensory Survival Guide is on sale right now through Christmas. And this is something that we've had on sale for the last couple of years during the holiday season, because it provides you with some tips, tricks and strategies to just get through the holiday season.
Rachel:
There are over 35 pages in this survival guide and they include things like road trips survival activities and strategies, holiday picky eating, our gift guide, our modified gift guides not like a huge one. It's like our sensory gift guide. We provide you with a holiday season sensory diets, visual schedule templates because we are obsessed with visuals. How to use sensory diets and visual schedules. Sensory diets for when you're traveling, which is what I'm going to be using quite often this holiday season. Holiday traditions, low talks, holiday ideas, you know surviving holiday parties, and we also share 10 tips for sensory friendly holidays. So lots and lots of information is included in the survival guide PDF document that you have access to forever. It is $5. You can head to the link in our show notes and check it out. We have one other announcement we want to share on this episode before we jump in. We do have our 12 Days of Christmas sale happening from November 28 through December 9, 2023. So if you are listening to this episode right now, it is time to save for our 12 Days of Christmas sale.
Jessica:
You will save 12% on everything on our website that includes our physical products and our digital products. Plus on Giving Tuesday, which is November 28, we will double our donation to game changers. This is a local nonprofit organization to get kids involved in sports. We currently donate 1% of all of our proceeds to game changers, but on Giving Tuesday November 28, we will double any purchases that are made.
Rachel:
You don't want to miss this sale in case you missed our Black Friday - Cyber Monday sale. This is another fantastic discount that we are sharing for our most popular compression swing, our weighted compression vest, blankets, hugs, lap animals weighted animals, weighted lap pads. You know, we've got body socks, compression sheets, we've got everything you need for a happy, healthy organized sensory system.
Jessica:
So you can go to the link in the show notes. The 12% discount will be applied automatically when you click that link. Again that's our 12 Days of Christmas sale from November 28 to December 9, 2023.
Rachel:
Happy Holidays! Let's jump into today's episode. Hey there! Welcome back to All Things Sensory by Harkla. We're happy to have you here today. I know I'm not supposed to say this anymore, but we do have a unique episode.
Jessica:
This time it's really true.
Rachel:
This time it actually is. We had a listener request. Someone messaged us and said I'd love it if you guys could dedicate an entire episode all to things relating to periods.
Jessica:
Here we are.
Rachel:
Menstruation. Let's do it.
Jessica:
We do have an episode on embarrassing teen hygiene tasks so we will link that episode in the show notes. But this one is specific to periods, menstruation, whatever you want to call it., and aunt flow.
Rachel:
Aunt flow.
Jessica:
When people used to call it that.
Rachel:
I love that.
Jessica:
So we got more details from this listener because there are definitely some general strategies that we can provide
Rachel:
This is one of those areas of occupation that as for preteen and teenage girls, women to use to help with some of the sensory components that go along with periods. But this person specifically had some great details that she was able to share about her daughter. So her daughter is 11 years old and she's basically getting ready for this major life event that is going to be happening very soon. And she would love all the info that she can get to help her daughter transition, and any other puberty milestones. And some of the other details about her daughter,. She struggles with anxiety with new and unexpected situations or events. She is very visual, but sometimes visual strategies like watching a video of what to expect can actually cause more anxiety. She's very particular about her hygiene. For example, she will change her underwear if she sees even like a tiny spot in her underwear of something. She has challenges with tolerating scratches and bug bites. She has challenges with multi-step tasks, she sings to herself in order to self regulate, and she is a bit hypersensitive to sounds. So knowing these specific details was really helpful to come up with some specific strategies for this person. But also, we're just gonna give some general strategies as well, that might be helpful for other preteens and teenagers. therapists like it's not talked about often, but it is something. It's an ADL. It's something that we have to help our clients work through and that's what we're designed to do. So, with that in mind, I think that we need to make sure we're taking any shame away from the topic, like it's just, it's normal, it's natural, it's a great thing that happens, and we need to be able to have these conversations, these challenging conversations. and know that it's in our scope of practice,
Jessica:
I was just thinking, I listen quite frequently to a health and wellness podcast called Mind Pump and they often talk to women who go to the extremes with dieting and fitness, and these women will oftentimes lose their period. And so this is a great kind of way to put it into perspective of having your period actually means that your body is healthy. I mean healthier than if you don't have your period by a certain age, right? So it means that your body is functioning the way it is biologically designed to. It means that you're eating enough. It means you're moving. So I think that's a great point to take the shame away from it for your daughter, for your female clients, and make it a point to say, look, if you have your period, it actually means that you are fairly healthy. It's a good sign to have your period.
Rachel:
Absolutely. So let's jump into some of our strategies. Remember, like Jessica mentioned, these are going to be some specific strategies for the listener, but also just specific strategies that you as a therapist or a parent can incorporate into your clients in your sessions, or with your own child if this is something that you are struggling with as well. Or yourself if you are an adult who's struggling with this. Try some of these as well.
Jessica:
The first one is to start implementing a therapeutic listening program. This is great for anyone who struggles with auditory processing, who is hypersensitive to sounds. The listening program from advanced brain technologies, the safe and sound protocol from ILS, these are two really great programs that they're essentially a workout for the brain, but they also help your brain and your body work together more efficiently to process auditory information as well as other sensory input.
Rachel:
Goingalong with working from the inside out. We love working on root causes and root challenges. We want to work on rhythmic reflex integration or movement based reflex integration. So our course are like what we specialize in is that movement based reflex integration but you could always look into some of the rhythmic reflex integration that Sonia Story does from Move, Play, Thrive. That course would be beneficial to look into as well. I just feel like a lot of the underlying sensitivities and anxiety could really be improved, potentially, by working on like the underlying reflex integration.
Jessica:
One that we were thinking of would be some tactile desensitization so incorporating some dry brushing, some vibration massage. That can be a great way to help the body learn how to process tactile input, and potentially decrease the adverse reactions that might come when the period comes.
Rachel:
Yeah, and I just want to make note that these first three
Jessica:
The next one would be to create a visual schedule that strategies that we gave, they really have nothing to do with menstruation at all. They're really about making sure all of the underlying areas are addressed before we're even going to address the menstruation. And I think that it's important to note that we need to be consistent with these strategies, whichever ones we try, and to start incorporating them every day in order for when menstruation begins with this particular child, we have a solid like foundation, a solid base of our pyramid, and the brain is functioning at its best. So I would pick one a therapeutic listening program, reflex integration, some tactile desensitization. Try to pick one. Maybe have your child pick which one they want to incorporate, or try and incorporate that consistently. is in the bathroom, that is on a key ring that can be taken places with the steps that are required for cleaning up, changing pads or tampons, whichever she chooses, and having that visual schedule can help with that multi-step component of dealing with having a period. So maybe have a visual schedule of what to do if there's an accident. So she knows oh, I can pull out this key ring because I leaked through and I can't remember what steps to take and in what orde, but this key ring with my pictures will help me remember what I need to do and what steps to take.
Rachel:
Love that. One like modification for like menstruation, I think would be to use period underwear. Saalt, I think is the local company that has period underwear. It's a good modification for tampons and pads and cups now that people are using. So I think knowing that the child struggles with getting things on the underwear. I think incorporating the visuals beforehand so we know like this is a normal thing. We want everything to come out of our body and we want the underwear to soak it all up and having those honest conversations about what's really happening, which we'll talk about those strategies next. But I think period underwear could be a good accommodation for eliminating the use of tampons and pads and things like that. I think the biggest thing would be just setting like a visual timer or a timer on the phone of when to change them, having cues of if it's full, or if it's smelly, things like that, like Okay, it's time we need to change this or we just change it every three hours. Regardless, so.
Jessica:
I like the tip of using some sort of timer. Like if this girl has a phone or a smartwatch, she can set a timer for X amount of hours every day. So she doesn't even have to think about it and the timer will go off and she knows exactly what to do. Practicing this ahead of time,. Practicing this before she actually needs to do it will be extremely helpful because that practice will help build that routine up in her head so she's not caught by surprise.
Rachel:
Okay, here's the thought. This is kind of weird. But I was just thinking like commercials for pads, where they like pour the liquid onto the pads. Honestly, like something like that so they can see.
Jessica:
So she can see what happened.
Rachel:
Yeah.
Jessica:
How it absorbs?
Rachel:
Yeah.
Jessica:
What to do once it's full.
Rachel:
Yeah.
Jessica:
Totally.
Rachel:
It's all about exposure. I feel like when I was a young kid, like, no one showed me this stuff. Like no one had these conversations with me. So we need to do with our kids.
Jessica:
I know. That's a good idea, though, to show her kind of how it works with just like snow water or something.
Rachel:
Yeah.
Jessica:
Anyways. I think we mentioned this at the beginning, but talking about why this is happening, why the period occurs, what's happening internally, just essentially educating her about her body, and about her cycle. Maybe go find a really great functional medicine doctor or practitioner, who specializes in this area,who can teach her all about the internal workings of her body and why it does this and that this happens to all women and all teenage girls at some point. And I think having that outside perspective from a medical professional could be helpful, potentially. But just figuring out a way to educate her on why it's happening would be helpful.
Rachel:
And going along with that just the full cycle. As a grown woman now I'm like still learning like, Oh, this is the luteal phase and this is like all the different phases. And I feel like if we can teach our kids and like, make it so it's not as scary. I feel like for so many young girls, it's like the scary thing that's happening, like you're literally bleeding. It's scary and I feel like if we can really do the work up front and teach them like, this is how it works. These are the different phases and this is when things are happening, and why you might feel really angry at this time of the month and why you might get a headache this time of month and why you might feel more energized this time of month. So I think really taking the time to work on that education is helpful.
Jessica:
Yeah, it's a great point.
Rachel:
From a personal standpoint, I think it's so important for young girls.
Jessica:
Oh, for sure.
Rachel:
For all women
Jessica:
Oh, for sure. If I'm super cranky all of a sudden, one random week, I know exactly why. It's taken me 30 plus years to figure it out. So man, if I had known that as a teenager.
Rachel:
I do think using like a tracking app would be helpful, I know.
Jessica:
Game changer. too. I know, when like a young girl starting, it's not always the most consistent thing. But like downloading an app and like tracking the period and when we're in the different phases and kind of having that visual could be helpful as well. And that way, maybe they aren't like as caught off guard when it does happen and they can prepare and have like panty liners and that sort of thing. So it's not as like, oh my gosh, I bled through my pants. It's cool, like that type of scary thought Well, and going along with that, creating some sort of toolkit that she can take in her bag, to school or to outings, to the store, to the park, wherever she's going and have that plan in place for if there is an accident. This kind of goes along back with the visual schedule. So she has her toolkit so she has extra underwear, she has a extra change of pants, she has extra pads, tampons, whatever she's using, plus the visual schedule key ring of what to do if she does have an accident. And if you have an extra pair of pants in there
Rachel:
And it's natural. might not be a small bag. But if you can figure out a way that it's small enough that she can take it everywhere she goes will be super helpful. Another one is to use essential oils in the bathroom. Have essential oil rollers that she can use, because let's be honest, sometimes it's smelly.
Jessica:
If she is sensitive to other types of sensory input, she might be sensitive to smells. So using essential oils in the bathroom, and using them having them with her. So she can rub the essential oil roller on her wrist before and after she's done doing what she needs to do in the bathroom can be super helpful.
Rachel:
I do want to mention, I feel like when we were younger, and hopefully it's changing now, but I feel like so many doctors like if you go to the doctor for like really bad period cramps and stuff like that, they immediately want to put you on birth control. And I think the research is showing now that that is not the most beneficial strategy. And it's actually harming girls more than it is helping them. So if you are dealing with like really challenging periods, I think it'd be beneficial to work with a functional medicine doctor, talk about nutrition, talk about thyroid, talk about the anxiety, and talk about all of these more natural, less invasive ways to manage pain and to really help work through a difficult cycle. Because usually there's, let's say 99% of the time, there's a reason why and we don't want to just put a bandaid on the issue and then 10 years down the road, or dealing with like medical issues, cysts, PCOS, things like that, that can be potentially caused by birth control. We're not going to go down that road. But I do think it is something that I wanted to mention because I am very passionate about birth control and I had such bad reaction to it. And I'm like, hmm.
Jessica:
I think it's really good to look at the different options and just educate yourself on what the different options are. Because there's more than one route that you can take and there's different strategies you can use for cramps. I use heat packs.
Rachel:
Me too.
Jessica:
All the time.
Rachel:
Yeah, I love heat. I use a heat pack every night, period.
Jessica:
Okay, I don't.
Rachel:
I love it.
Jessica:
Hot baths. Even going for a walk can sometimes help alleviate that pain. So yeah, just educate yourself so that you know what the different options are for your daughter or your clients.
Rachel:
If you have any additional strategies that we didn't mention in this episode or things that have worked or things that are helpful or just if you want to add to the conversation, we invite you to do so. Please send us a DM on Instagram at all things sensory podcast. If you want to share this episode, we think it is a conversation that definitely needs to get out there and we need to make sure that other OTs are addressing this. Take a screenshot, let people know that you're listening and you're having these conversations and you're learning about it and let us know your thoughts. Leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify, wherever you listen, we really appreciate those and they just make us so happy reading how the podcast has helped you. So we felt like 200 and something episodes right now.
Jessica:
And we're getting up there.
Rachel:
We're getting up there. And there's a lot of information out there. So we hope that it has just changed at least one person's life.
Jessica:
Yeah, totally.
Rachel:
In the past five years.
Jessica:
Yeah. Thanks for being here.
Rachel:
Okay, we'll catch you next week.
Jessica:
Okay, bye.
Rachel:
Thank you so much for listening to All Things Sensory
Jessica:
If you want more information on anything by Harkla. mentioned in the show, head over to Harkla.co/podcast to get the show notes.
Rachel:
If you have any follow up questions, the best place to ask those is in the comments on the show notes or message us on our Instagram account, which is at Harkla_family or at all things sensory podcast, if you just search Harkla, you'll find us there.
Jessica:
Like we mentioned before our podcast, listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla. Whether it's for one of our digital courses or one of our sensory swings, the discount code sensory, will get you 10% off. That's s e n s o r y.
Rachel:
Head to Harkla.co/sensory to use that discount code right now.
Jessica:
We're so excited to work together to help create confident kids all over the world. While we make every effort to share correct information, we're still learning.
Rachel:
We will double check all of our facts but realize that medicine is a constantly changing science and art.
Jessica:
One doctor or therapist may have a different way of doing things from another.
Rachel:
We are simply presenting our views and opinions on how to address common sensory challenges, health related difficulties, and what we have found to be beneficial that will be as evidence based as possible.
Jessica:
By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or your child.
Rachel:
Consult your child's pediatrician or therapists for any medical issues that he or she may be having.
Jessica:
This entire disclaimer also applies to any guests or contributors to the podcast.