I bought five new items of clothing last week; in three of them (from different major brands), there is a dashed “cut here” line on the not-particularly-scratchy tags. While the Dope isn’t representative of the world at large, I imagine those people haven’t started printing that line because it looks cute.
I know the Dope isn’t a great representation of the outside world, I can’t imagine it would be that far off. I don’t think I’ve seen clothes with a dashed line on the tag. I’ll have to look this weekend as I need to go clothes shopping for the girls anyway.
BTW your answers in this thread are why you’re my super secret doper crush, but don’t tell anyone.
I’d forgotten that I used to be annoyed by tags in clothing, haven’t noticed that in years.
I’m wondering if this counselor is just a bit wooly-headed, or if it’s part of a deliberate scam.
All tags drive me friggin nuts.
I literally yelped with happiness the first time I saw shirts that had the “tag” info printed onto the shirt. I was sooo happy!
Same with the microfiber ‘seamless tagless undies’ - they aren’t exactly seamless, but they’re way better than the alternative.
The utter worst clothes are ones with side-seam tags. They never sit anywhere nice, they always dig (usually right into my hipbone), and they’re bulky and look tacky to boot.
Seams are less bothersome, but I do notice them when I’m wearing jeans or heavy corduroys, or when I’ve been in skirts for work or plays for a long time (more than two days) and have to switch back into pants again. The inseams really really bother me then, and it takes a day or two to get used to that sensation again.
Don’t get me started on turtlenecks. Those things are satan.
I’ve heard of Sensory Processing Disorder, but from what I gather from autism therapist friend it isn’t really common in neurotypical people.
It sounds like your little girl is just normal level picky about what she wants near her skin, and she’s getting old enough to express her opinions about it.
Lose the tags on her existing clothes, try to buy tagless or seamless if possible, stay away from turtlenecks if she seems to dislike those, and chalk it up to normal person likes and dislikes.
It ALSO sounds like your therapist person is highly woo and possibly getting a kickback commission off each $500 job they send along to their “friend.”
I am sensitive to sitting on seams or seams under my feet, and scratchy tags on my neck… but none of these things has ever made me feel like I needed treatment. I vote woo woo.
I have an autistic daughter and some clothes set her off. I’m of the opinion that *much *of the Sensory Processing Disorder is complete hooey. That said, I know a kid that walks barefoot on tippy toes because walking on his feet is irritating. This kid certainly has obvious sensory processing issues as opposed to it being a stretch
I think there are some things that might be really irritating for a child without it impacting their overall life. For example, my nephew finds socks above the ankle to be really irritating as well as shirt tags. these are easy to cope with (ankle socks and remove the tags) and once the irritant is out of the way, then there is no effect. He’s 19 and still finds these 2 things really irritating.
I’ve personally experienced too many health care and special needs related people making a mountain out of a molehill on sensory processing.
From the OP, it doesn’t seem like your child is way out there and needs to have a “sensory diet”, “brushing” and some of the other treatments. Certainly something to be aware of and look into further though if it does seem to be a big deal. Otherwise, I would dress your child in a way that removes the irritant and see how that goes.
I do think my daughter is normal, but the counselor seems to think otherwise, or at least thinks enough to have her checked out. My daughter is normal in every way I can see, so she doesn’t like socks and some pants. She likes dresses and shorts. I’m going to try and advise the ex against paying someone, but I’m not sure it will work.
After reading a couple of web sites, I believe there might be SPD, but some of these people remind me of the anti-vaxers. Which I can say my ex is not thank og.
I’m bothered by clothing tags, to some extent. I can ignore them, mostly, but sometimes they’re made of very irritating paper or fabric. A couple of times at work I’ve had to take some scissors into the bathroom stall to cut off a tag on a blouse or sweater that’s really getting on my nerves. I also hate scratchy fabrics and tend to use fabric softener more often than not because my clothes don’t bug me as much when I use it. I was once given pajamas that I really liked, but as I kept wearing the pants, the inside got all scratchy and pilled, so I ended up having to throw them out. 
My daughter feels seams in clothing and tags, and much to her grandparents’ and aunts’ chagrin, there are dresses and blouses they’ve given her that she refuses to wear because of the seams. She especially hates blouses or dresses with a seam that runs across the abdomen, which tends to be the case with most fancy dresses for little girls. I try to exchange them for something more acceptable, or put a cotton camisole on her so she won’t feel it as much. I particularly remember one Easter, when I had to hurriedly sew a length of wide silk ribbon over the seam in the lining of her Easter dress before we had to go to Grandma’s. Fortunately she found it acceptable and there were no further complaints.
My daughter also went through a phase where she hated the inside seam of socks, so I would put socks on her inside out until she outgrew the phase. She still doesn’t like wearing tights with feet, but puts up with it only because her ballet teacher won’t allow her in class wearing footless tights and socks.
Like a previous poster, I was giddy with happiness the day I found that some clothing manufacturers had begun printing care instructions on clothing rather than use labels. It makes life so much easier.
I hardly ever notice or think about my clothes (do I ever go outside naked by accident? I hope not! I might not notice!), but occasionally a clothing tag will drive me bonkers for no good reason. Then I cut if off. Then the tiny little remnant of tag left behind, or the seam that attached the tag, will drive me bonkers. Then I’ll throw the shirt away. Then *the imaginary tag that for some reason feels like it’s still there even though I’m now wearing a different shirt *will drive me bonkers.
Maybe I’m just bonkers.
Although tags make me itch, I have to leave them on, or I can’t tell my clothes apart from everyone else’s in the house. So I wear a lot of screened tags.
I don’t really notice seems, but, if someone points them out to me, and I fix them, I do notice that it feels better.
My mother is the worst, though. Not with tags and seems, but with any looseness or “grit” as she calls it in the mattress. I get not liking it, but it literally hurts her.
My father is just the opposite. Seems and tags bug him, but he can sleep anywhere. So I’m glad I got the less picky half from both of them.
As for SPD: it’s usually a little bit bigger than just not liking the way clothes feel. That, in and of itself, is insufficient.
And, seeing as medicaid pays maybe $50 a session around here, I think you can get a psychologist to do a proper evaluation for at most $100.
Edward, I flat our refused to wear a girl’s bathing suit until I was 7. I wore boy’s trunks from the time I could speak until I was 7. And I was quite the active little swimmer, too. Didn’t make me transgendered, a lesbian, or a man-hating weirdo when I grew up. Just made me a kid with clothing issues.
So there’s hope for your daughter yet ;). Hope your ex doesn’t blow $500 on a consultation - especially if you encourage a visit the pediatrician first…
My six year old has sensory processing disorder. It’s a lot more than the texture thing, but it’s really noticeable in my daughter’s case. One example I can think of was buying her this fancy Halloween costume she had to have, but on Halloween she just couldn’t bear the meshy texture so we had to throw something else together and of course it broke her heart but she just couldn’t deal with it. Seams in socks bother her, she can’t stand having long sleeves covering her arms and she doesn’t want anything in her hair like barrettes or bands.
Other than material texture sensitivity she can’t stand certain sounds and she gets hysterical around hair dryers and vacuum cleaners. She’s very picky about food textures too. She can’t stand getting anything on her hands either. And she’s a horrible sleeper.
She has been like this pretty much since birth. Very, *very *bad first year. At first they thought she had autism but now that she’s getting older and has had three years of therapy there have been such improvements all around she barely scores borderline so they just call it SPD with autistic features at this point.
I think she’s growing out of it, or at least it’s not as bad these days. She also has expressive/receptive language disorder so she qualifies for special ed. services in school and she has OT and speech twice a week and they work a lot on the sensory issues in therapy.
After going to a seminar:rolleyes: on Sensory Integrative Disorder, my granddaughter’s pre-K teacher “diagnosed” her with SID. Her parents chose to just let things be, cut out tags, let her help choose her own clothes (mostly she wanted cotton fabrics.) Now most of the problems have disappeared. Several other family members still have their own minor issues with thing like elastic directly next to skin, sock seams, shoe tongues not fully pulled up, feeling smothered by nail polish…(this list goes on and on) so we figure, hey, she fits right in! I say don’t worry about it unless it becomes a much bigger problem than it is right now.
Suddenly I feel abnormal about feeling normal. I am rarely if ever bothered by my clothing. Sometimes there will be a tag that annoys me enough to be cut out, but it is rare. The ones on the hip I never notice. And only because the tags they make these days are plasticky…when I was a child there were softer tags…no nylon thread! As a child I would wear my knee socks all twisted around…never bothered me, but the sight of it drove my sister up a wall. Seams…no big deal unless they are bunched up and twisted. But in normal wear…no problems. My kids never had any clothing issues. My friends when I was young never voiced any clothing issues. The first time I heard of the issue was a friend’s daughter who could not stand waistbands…didn’t like anything around her tummy, to the point of screaming. She would wear pants only if she could roll the waistband down under her tummy, which was a lovely and attractive sight. She would wear overalls, but not pants. She was in many ways a high-strung, anxiety ridden child. No other children in our circle of friends seemed to have any other clothing issues. And in all the children I know now, I can think of only one who has clothing issues, but she’s been slightly neurotic since birth and has so many other issues that the “no pants, just dresses and tights” thing is pretty dealable.
In short, I find children who have major issues with clothing to be in the minority amongst the children I know.
Well I’m not convinced that there’s anything wrong with my daughter. She wore socks a few times this weekend with no problem. And zero problems with pants. I think that with all that’s going on in her life she needs something to control and her clothes are it.
Lot of interesting things in the thread though.