It has occurred to me recently that I don't I've ever explained the sock on Max's hand. It's one of the first things little kids ask when they meet Max for the first time, "Why is he wearing a sock on his hand?" We even have adults ask about it when we are out and about. Steve loves to answer, "because that's his foot", but of course that isn't the truth.
Max wears a sock on his left hand for a few reasons. The main one is he scratches when his eyes and nose itch. And for Max, he doesn't stop until he draws blood...yes seriously. I won't go into details but it is one of Steve's favorite stories about how I screamed my head off thinking Max had dislodged an eyeball after one of his scratch sessions....a very, very bloody eyeball.
Another reason he wears a sock on his hand is because he has few signs, but the one that is very consistent is he bites the heel of his left hand to tell us he likes something, or to simply answer "yes" to a question. If he's not wearing a sock, he will cause blisters to form on his palm from his teeth.
And lastly, we are always looking for ways to avoid germs spreading to Max. He will only put his left hand to his mouth, so that's the easiest place for germs to find their way from his hands to his mouth. People tend to not touch his socked hand, so we can try to avoid the hand to mouth germ pass.
There it is...an explanation of something that is just part of Max to all who know him best, but can be a bit of a mystery for those who don't know him as well.
2 comments:
Thanks for explaining all of that. What does Max think of the sock -- does he express frustration because of it?
He loves to set his fingers free, but because his nails kind of grow with the skin we have to let them really grow long before I can clip them. He doesn't like scratching himself or cutting himself and can really get a good scratch going when he has his sock on.
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