The thing about eating out in public with a child who has Tourette Syndrome and its associated disorders is that it gets a little dicey.  Ok, sometimes a LOT dicey.

The first hurdle of the evening when going out to dinner is the stimulation imposed on Bean by the restaurant…loud music and voices, lots of people all sitting in close vicinity to each other, lots of movement as servers fly by with giant trays of food and drinks, many different and pungent smells, having to wait to be seated, having to sit where we’re told, not to mention the décor…everything starts assaulting her senses the minute we step in the door.

Sometimes these things don’t seem to bother her so much; perhaps she’s had an especially good and low-stress day and she is well rested and in good spirits and her “sensory cup” has room left for such a rich sensory experience that day.

The next hurdle we must face is her OCD which is also assaulted at a restaurant…she must sit in a chair that is different in a spot that is different with plates and utensils that are different, the food may not be how she expects it to be, there may be people sitting too close to our table, or a dirty spot on the table, or perhaps a garnish on her plate that deems the entire meal inedible.

On the occasions that her OCD isn’t bothered greatly by the restaurant, we have to next deal with the ADHD.  That means Bean cannot sit on her chair, she needs to fidget on her chair, stand up, bounce, go to the bathroom several times, she cannot wait to be seated, cannot wait to be served, cannot wait for her drink refill to arrive, cannot wait to leave when she’s done.

She is too distracted by the games on the kid menu, or munching on tortilla chips, to focus on deciding which meal she’d like.  And even after she decides, she often changes her mind several times — absolutely unsure which choice is the best. And if we make it through all of that, there are always the tics. Continue reading →