Shaving Cream Fun: A sensory sensitive activity

If there’s one thing my little guy dislikes, it’s being dirty and feeling gooey things in his hands.  We’ve tried to make slime, and while he loved the process of making it, he hated the feeling of it. and refused to touch it. I’ve tried several times.

He also hates walking in grass with bare feet, sand in his shoes, and anything sticky.

We are not the parents to avoid these things completely, as we believe in exposing him to things he may dislike, but, it’s a process, and we are still sensitive to his needs.

He used to hate getting water on his face and after years of exposure and helping him through it, he’s finally comfortable with this during bathing, pool, etc.  It’s definitely not his favorite thing, but he tolerates it fine now, and is able to take showers and do what he needs to do. To me, it’s all about understanding his needs and providing support and resources to help him overcome.

A common activity among kids is spraying shaving cream on a table and letting them play in it. I watched a friends little girl today who is a toddler. I thought it might be fun to do shaving cream with both kids, and I thought maybe if B saw little M do it then he might go along with it. We’ve tried shaving cream so many times over the years and he’s always hated it, but I keep trying, even at 6 years old.  Little M was all about it, but after a few seconds, B was over it. He said it felt “good, but messy and gross”. Ha. He ran inside to wash his hands and refused to touch it again.  That is, until I had an idea!

He loves things that are squishy, just not any associated mess.  I came up with an idea to try putting shaving cream in a Ziplock bag, then letting him add food coloring to it and squish the color around into the bag. I thought this might take care of the “good, but messy and gross” problem. It was the perfect idea for his sensory needs, by allowing him to enjoy it, but in his own way.

What makes it great for sensory sensitive kids?

• Mess free
• Soft/squishy
• Spreading the color around inside of the bag so it gets to all the shaving cream is relaxing. I’d equate it to watching a sensory bottle. He was careful and wanted to be sure he covered every area. He was so calm about it.
• Choose your own color-should a kid have an aversion to any particular color.

What You Need

• Shaving Cream
• Ziploc bag, whichever size you prefer. We did gallon and sandwich. Double zip is the best!
• Food coloring

Directions

1. Spray shaving cream in size bag of your choice. You want a decent amount so it’ll spread in the entire bag.  I bounced it on the counter to make it drip down, then sprayed more.2. Place a few drops of food coloring.Try to get the air out as best as you can before zipping tightly. You don’t want it to pop and shaving cream go everywhere!

3. Once you’re sure the bag is secure, give it to your child to press and mash the color       everywhere.  If you think your child may puncture a whole in it, you can double bag it!

We ended up making 3! We started with the sandwich size and then he asked for a large one.

He loved it so much he kept burying his face in it like a pillow, saying how good it felt!

I have to admit, it was even fun to play with myself.  I’m glad we made 3 so we each had one.

I’ll keep trying actual shaving cream every now and again, but this is perfect for now!