Vibrating Chair

I started this blog with the intention of making it all about Auditory Processing Disorder, but as I've come to realize, I can't really isolate Auditory Processing Disorder from the other processing and learning differences that my sweet daughter has as well.  Like a lot of children with Auditory Processing Disorder, Hailey has other differences such as Sensory Processing Disorder, which is where this post on vibrating chairs fits in.

Recently Hailey has been having more difficulties falling asleep and staying asleep at night.  When she was an infant and young child, we went through tons of vibrating bouncy chairs and then vibrating pads for her to lie on.  She loved the feeling of being vibrated, and it was the best way she could get calmed enough to fall asleep.

When she was an infant, we happened upon the vibrating effect quite by accident.  We found that she would actually cry to be put in her vibrating bouncy chair.  She would sit in it and happily play with toys; interact better with us by making eye contact and smiling; and then would drift peacefully off to sleep in it.

Of course, the chairs would eventually stop working and we would buy another one.  Once she got too big for them, we started buying vibrating pads to lie on, however she didn't like them as much and really only used them before bedtime to get more sleepy.

Around age five, her last vibrating pad stopped working and since she hadn't been using it as much anymore, we decided not to replace it; she was getting to sleep on her own without it.  (She still had vibrating chew toys that she used when she felt stressed out.)

Now, five years later, she is starting to have difficulties with sleep again.  Maybe it's the onset of puberty causing it, maybe it's the stress of transitioning from being a child to a pre-teen, or maybe it's the social difficulties of the pre-teen/teen years.  Who knows really?

So we bought her a vibrating chair. (Comfort Products 60-0582) It's one marketed as a massage chair and it has eight rotating gears that provide a vibrating sensation.   She loves it!  Not only does it help her to sleep, she also uses it to just relax when she's feeling stressed or overwhelmed.