Regression and Dysregulation

    I learned so many new things about Reactive Attachment Disorder on our recent trip to the ocean. That doesn't mean I understand it any better or want to accept it I just got a clearer picture of it.

   First of all, I was blown away by the regression Tator went through on the trip. One problem we had when she was younger was that she would refuse to eat. Not all the time and not the same food.It wasn't like a, I don't like it kind of thing, just a i'm not eating it. On vactaton I made something that we eat all the time at home and she sat and stared at it and then she said, "I don't like it" and continued to pick through it. This was a battle she stood firm on for 24 hours. Until we ended it the following evening by going out to eat and telling her we would be choosing what she ate at the Buffet and no dessert unless she ate it before we went. She then of course could have whatever she wanted at the resterant. She chose not to eat it and let us fix her plate and never asked us for dessert. Ok, so who really won that one????

   She also started talking in the "Me" form "me want this and me want that." I don't think she has ever done that.

   I also saw her sucking her thumb some when she thought no one was looking. Never saw that before either.

   She has a lot of 2 year old behaviors, but these were 3 I hadn't seen in awhile or ever.


   Dysregulation is something I understand, but I was blown away by one very clear incadent that happened on the beach.  One day we had her sit very close to Shawn and I or sometimes between us and play in the sand.

   She would sit there and play, digging and building things, talking in a very normal tone. Very nice play with the other kids, but we would notice her inching away, slowly, a little at a time. We'd have to remind her of where she was supposed to be (yea like she'd forget.)

   For some reason, one time we didn't realize she was inching away and she turned around to talk to us from about a foot from where she had been sitting. She talked in a very loud, fast and baby like way. I couldn't believe it. I told her I couldn't hear her since she wasn't where she was supposed to be and she quickly came back. Then she went right back into that nice, normal tone.

   It was very clear she had some pretty BIG feelings about the beach.