Happy Birthday to YOU

Happy Birthday to YOU

Happy Birthday Dear (Insert your name)

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Now make a wish and blow out the candles!

This is normally a joyous song! Family and friends get together and honor the birthday recipient.

For J, it is anything but joyous! Don’t get me wrong-he likes the song and can sing it. What he hates is to hear a group of people singing it.

A couple of years ago, we were at my Great Uncle’s 95th party. While everyone was singing and celebrating, J was screaming and crying. This was before I even knew of Sensory Processing.

This happens anytime a group sings Happy Birthday. Or when a group of people cheers their glasses. Or if too many people say YAY! It’s all too overwhelming for J.

Recently, it was my daughter’s 1st birthday. We had a lot of people at the house and although he wasn’t upset, J was definitely extra hyper. I think he was trying to process so many people in his house all at once. Before we were going to sing Happy Birthday and even though I would’ve loved to have him there, I told him what was about to happen and gave him the option to not be in the room if he wasn’t comfortable. He took grandpa downstairs to the playroom and we sang to his sister.

At the end of the song, J came back upstairs crying. While downstairs, he had gone into his playhouse, closed the door and the windows as if to hide out. My dad told me that by the end of the song he was crying. Once I got him calm, he said he wanted to blow out candles too. So I relit one for him, told him to make a wish and he blew out his own candle. Within a few minutes he was back to the party.

Situations like this isn’t just a 3 year old having a tantrum. And if this was the only thing he did that didn’t seem right, I might not think anything of it. But when you combine it with other triggers we’ve noticed, it’s hard to dispute that Sensory Processing seems to be the culprit.