Reader Spotlight - SPD and the use of essential oil

Today I've asked fellow homeschooling and sensory Momma, Shannon H. to share with us the use of essential oils with her sensory children (Sensory Processing Disorder).  

Let me start out by saying how much I love reading your blog, and the many others that I read weekly from others who take the time out to share and help others!  I guess I am going to need to jump on the bandwagon of blogging as for some reason people do seem interested in how I have chosen to live without modern medicine and live more “naturally”. Before I set out on my journey blogging, I would love to share my experience with essential oils and Sensory Processing Disorder! My three beautiful children all share different aspects of this disorder and though not diagnosed yet, I feel as if I need to provide any type of help I possibly can.

For our own personal reasons we choose not to use modern medicine. Instead we turned to essential oils to treat almost any ailment that comes at us. As far as SPD goes in our house, calming down techniques are a TOP priority! Our arsenal of oils can help us fight some of the battles we endure. In midst of a deep meltdown with kicking, hitting, screaming and even banging her head, our nearly 3 year old daughter can be found in a tight corner asking for her oils! “Eels, no crying more”, she says to us. Now, I am no expert, but I know that they must be calming to her. I am using them myself and know that they work. I was however surprised that she was feeling relief as well! We use our oils and then follow with the sensory input that is needed at that time.

We have now been using our oils from Heritage Essential Oils for a week with dramatic success, and some for an entire month from a previous order through DoTerra. I love our current stash for lifting our moods which includes lavender, peppermint, lemon, a blend that includes orange, ylang ylang, and patchouli; and Vetiver. Vetiver is one that has been considered a life saver in our house. It is known to have a calming effect! Yay, just what we need at certain times, right?! We also bought Potential, this is more for my eldest and I, as we tend to have a lot of anxiety and OCD type issues, and oils in this blend have been shown to help with that. Potential has also been extremely beneficial in this first week . We are noticing when we need more oils on us as well, as essential oils need to be reapplied every couple hours (which is the hard part for some people.) I am one that doesn’t remember to take vitamins so I thought it would be difficult, but we are drawn to the oils and their benefits. We use many other essential oils than I mentioned by the way, for asthma, arthritis, and even ganglion cysts right now! Check into using essential oils, I am sure you will just as surprised as we were at the relief they bring! 

There are many different places essential oils can be purchased. We use Heritage Essential Oils now, but when we first started using essential oils, we used DoTerra, which is also a wonderful company.  I do think a quality oil is necessary and have done heavy research on many different companies. We decided that we would also try to save money on our stash of oils since there were so many we needed. I spent a couple weeks researching through the ailments on the Health Tab on Heritage Essential Oils and came up with my order. It was all very exciting! 

What lead you to trying essential oils in the first place?

I hate chemicals and anything unnatural.  I spent many years on modern medicine that never cured my ailments only masked them and ended up with even worse side effects! Four years prior to our newest journey in essential oils, we had been using coconut oil for a natural diaper rash solution and tea tree oil to cleanse and disinfect our skin and laundry. This newest journey started out looking for better ways to calm myself and ended up finding ways to calm my children as well thanks to the website I shared. 

Are there side effects other she watch out for?

I don't know that I would use the word side effect as there really aren't any. I would say some people may be sensitive to the aroma or have minor skin irritation if they do not dilute the oil with a carrier oil such as coconut oil, almond oil, or other carrier oil. You may even use olive oil from your pantry as a carrier oil! There are a few essential oils that are considered "hot" and it will say right on the directions to dilute it with a carrier oil. It also should be known that if you allergic to something, for example, cinnamon, it is very wise not to use Cinnamon Bark essential oil of course. I am very impressed due to modern medicine's negative side effects that I have not found any with essential oils. 




All pictures are click able links back to the original website. They are not mine, and I am not claiming them as mine. As mention above since there can be certain allergies and possible health concerns, I advise anyone looking into using essential oils to check with their health care professional first.