Random musings

Note: I originally wrote this in September, but never published it.

Frank ate a cupcake!  Actually, two cupcakes- one at OT the day before his birthday, and one at school on his actual birthday.  He ate the cake, and not the icing, but: My.  Kid.  Ate.  A.  CUPCAKE.  (His teachers were just as excited as I was, too.  It was very cute)

My husband thinks I worry too much about this sort of thing.  In one respect, he's right: every six months, when I bring him to the dentist, I get compliments on the state of his teeth, to which my response is always the same: "His teeth should be pristine.  He doesn't eat anything with sugar in it!" 

However, as someone who was picked on for 13 straight years of school, I worry about social implications of his food issues.  I don't think it's any secret to anyone who has regular interaction with children, or was once a child, that kids can be cruel.  I don't want Frank to be That Weird Kid Who Won't Eat a Cupcake.  Or whatever.  Granted, at least at this point, he's very self-confident, and if someone says something mean to him, he gives as good as he gets, but who knows what will happen next year when he's in public school?  He'll be entering in first grade, whereas most of his classmates will enter as kindergarteners, and will have had a year to cement friendships. 

I worry because I read a lot, and I know that kids with SPD tend to have more social problems than kids who are neurotypical.  I also know that I was picked on a lot (I was an easy target- I was painfully shy and wore glasses and had health issues.), and I work in schools, so I see firsthand every day how cruel kids can be. 

But, at the moment: he ate cupcakes, and he's loving kindergarten, and doing very well.  And according to his pediatrician, he's in the 89% for height for his age, so, from a purely physical standpoint, we definitely made the right decision to start him in kindergarten now instead of waiting until next year.