sensory defensiveness - where to start?

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At my son's last IEP, his OT brought up how sensory defensive he is. I really hadn't noticed, because he is such an affectionate guy, but since then there have been several instances of him needing minor first aid and really freaking out about us needing to touch him. I was the same way myself so I understand it, but that doesn't help much when you've got a splinter that needs to come out or a band-aid that needs to be put on.

Any recommended resources for beginning a desensitization program? We've done brushing several times in the past and it always starts out well but then he gets very resistant to it after awhile.

I don't know about a desensitization program but when the kid I most recently did respite care for stepped on broken glass and I had to clean the cut I told him I needed him to be tough guy like Howard the Duck (we had been watching the movie that day and it's a bit of a special interest for him). I was able to clean it off, put some peroxide on it and get some neosphorine and a bandage on it without a peep. He seems to have a normal sense of pain so i don't know if telling your son to try and be tough like his favorite superhero or something would work if he's especially sensitive to pain.

I'm not sure if he's especially sensitive. When he was a baby, he seemed less sensitive in many ways. I think it's mostly fear and problems with being touched.

Heh I didn't know I had a problem with being touched until I went to massage school and got my first massage. After that it was just getting used to touch in a calming familiar setting by familiar people. It took a fairly long while and for some reason my stomach never really got acclimated to touch but just a gradually increasing amount for a sustained bit of time.

My son also has a lot of tactile defensiveness. Applying sunblock is a total trauma.

My older girls (who are NT) had sensory integration problems, and we did a lot of desensitizing stuff with them in OT. We couldn't do brushing because they also have dermographism, so the brushing stroke actually triggers a histamine response. We did deep massage with thick, gooey moisturizer, like Eucerin Creme instead of brushing. (I need to start doing that with my son!)

Our OT did tons of other stuff -- having them find tiny toys in a bag of plastic Easter grass, picking tiny toys out of polyfill pillow stuffing, playing with those fake Halloween spider webs, all kinds of stuff. I think the book 'Out of Sync Child' may have more ideas.

Best wishes!