5-year-old with extreme clothing sensitivity – anyone experienced this?

Hello everyone,

First of all, this post was summarized with the help of AI because I’ve discussed my daughter’s situation in detail before and wanted to structure it clearly.

I’m a dad from Germany and we’re trying to understand what’s going on with our 5-year-old daughter.

Since April last year, she has developed severe sensory issues, especially with clothing. It started with a strong rash and facial swelling in spring. Shortly after that, she began refusing certain clothes because they “feel weird.” Within weeks, it escalated to the point where she wouldn’t wear anything at all. At the worst stage, she couldn’t even tolerate a blanket at night.

Over the summer, things improved noticeably. She was able to wear more clothing again and daily life became easier.
In autumn, it started getting worse again, and during winter it fluctuated — some days were manageable, others very difficult.

Now, with the transition into spring, it seems to be intensifying again. This morning she had to go to kindergarten naked because she simply couldn’t tolerate clothes at home. Interestingly, once she’s there, she sometimes manages to put something on.

Often she will put something on, and then suddenly something bothers her and she takes everything off again while screaming and having intense meltdowns.

Additional context:

• Our regular pediatrician is unsure what to make of it.
• Ergotherapy says she appears “unremarkable” in testing and they don’t really know how to explain it.
• We are on the waiting list for the Social Pediatric Center (SPZ), but we have no idea how long it will take.
• We have an upcoming appointment with a child psychologist.

There is a suspicion of autism spectrum disorder and/or sensory processing disorder.

My questions:
Has anyone experienced clothing sensitivity this extreme, especially with seasonal worsening?
Did it improve with age or therapy?
What helped your child the most?

We just want to understand her better and support her in the right way.

Thank you so much.