Hi,

My son has had a fear of buttons since he was about 3 yrs old (he's 8
1/2 now). He used to say that they smelled bad, and until recently
couldn't sit close to someone wearing buttons or eat anything if
buttons were in sight. That part about eating around others with
buttons has improved, but he still gets very anxious and feels sick
to his stomach if he is asked to wear a button shirt, even if it is
only for 1/2 hour. He absolutely refused to wear buttons until last
year when we took him to a psychologist, then got better about it,
but has reverted back to getting extremely upset and ill when we try
to get him to wear one.

The problem now is that he's been chosen for a baseball team, but
when he saw the uniform had 2 buttons on it he said 'well then i just
can't be on the team' even though he'd been so eager to make it
before he found out about the buttons on the shirt. I feel awful for
him because I know he was so excited to get selected and now the
buttons upset him so much he won't join.

Any advice on this? I'm wondering if short spurts of wearing the
shirt to get used to it might work, or if I should try to switch the
buttons to snaps, or just sew the button holes closed and sew up that
part. It's so hard, and I hate to see him drop out of something he's
good at. Plus, part of me was hoping if he wore buttons during
something he really enjoyed, then maybe he'd start to not mind them.

thanks for any help you can suggest!