Elm Creek: A Readymade Family, Volume 1

20

TWENTY

Hâroon ushered Ibrâhîm toward the hallway bathroom, which was shared between the two of them and Yusrâ. “Let’s get you cleaned up, and then we can see about finding you something to eat.”

Though still crying, Ibrâhîm allowed himself to be led inside, and Haroon recited the necessary du’â as they entered the bathroom, left foot preceding the right.

Inside the white-themed bathroom—from the walls and floor tiles to the ceramic constructions of toilet, sink, and bathtub—Hâroon hung the clothes on the steel bar beside the two pale green bath towels already present and set the cream and diaper on the side of the sink. Locking the door so Ibrâhîm wouldn’t open the door and run out, he left his son to wander as he sat on the covered toilet seat beside the tub to turn on the water and adjust the temperature.

Ibrâhîm was ultra-sensitive about the temperature of the water he bathed in, Hâroon had discovered. What most people would consider pleasantly cool was too cold and what was a gentle warm seemed to be too hot. Having learned about the sensory issues that were connected with autism, Ibrâhîm’s sensitivity made far more sense than it had at the time he’d begun to notice it. It wasn’t the only particularity he had noticed though. He’d also taken notice of a lot of other habits, dislikes, and aversions that he now knew to be connected to sensory issues.

Ibrâhim abhorred collared shirts and anything made of denim. He despised anything stiff and scratchy, but he loved cotton and other soft materials. The times Hâroon had dared to dress him in clothes made with a material he didn’t like had resulted in a strip down, sometimes embarrassingly in public, followed by a laughing shriek as the child tore around in his diaper and his father attempted to catch him to redress him.

He had an odd aversion to the color green and wouldn’t eat anything of that color—vegetable or otherwise, including sweets—which made adding vegetables to his diet a challenge; and he also had a dislike of mushy foods like oatmeal and grits and refused to eat them.

He had an obsession with the color red. He loved anything from clothing to toys that were red. He had even swiped items from stores of that color to Hâroon’s embarrassment.

He hated having his hair touched in any form, including washed, cut, and brushed, which usually dissolved him to tears and could even lead to screaming. There were also a number of other small things that were of little importance but indicators of his son’s sensory sensitivities and autism.

Once Hâroon had successfully brought the water to the temperature Ibrâhîm preferred, he plugged the drain and let the water run to fill the tub. Ibrâhîm continued to whine and cry as he wandered around the bathroom, and the echo disturbed his sensitive sense of hearing, agitating him further. Clapping his hands over his ears, he rocked back and forth—one of the several stims he used when he became uncomfortable from a sensory overload. Though when he acted on them in public, people generally stared, Hâroon had noticed they seemed to have a calming effect on him. Lila would immediately try to prevent any type of stim that could be constituted as odd behavior in public, but he had realized it was more helpful to his son to allow him to calm himself in whatever way he chose as long as he wasn’t causing himself or others harm than attempt to force him into socially acceptable behavior.

Once the tub was half-filled, he switched off the water and rose. “Let’s get you cleaned up, Ibrâhîm,” he said, taking him by the arm and squatting before him.

Holding Ibrâhîm as still as could be managed—as he continued his rocking and frequent jerks—Hâroon undressed him, removing the pajama set. Nausea hit him as the stench of feces and urine became even stronger, increasing the building anger toward Lila. The brown-yellow stain on the sides of the diaper and covering part of the child’s upper thighs were a clear indication that it had reached its maximum long ago. Tamping down the nausea as best as he could, he mentally prepared himself for the worst as he removed the diaper. As expected, the diaper was full to the limit with human waste. His son’s backside was smeared with feces, and both his pelvic area and behind were red and irritated.