RE: Kids w/ Classic Autism, PDD-NOS & Speech Delays

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I am trying to get back to the US ASAP, will most likely end up in MA where I come from. I heard services there are supposed to be among the best...

Anyway can't be any worse than here in Japan. Services here are laughable.

I think it's a matter of parental sanity Vs being drug free. My daughter is home today and driving me nuts. I'm seeing the doctor today to talk options.

I'm not sure if it's fear driving my daughter to misbehave. She still has some issues in relation to noise sensitivity and seeks attention by tearing things up or screeching loud if she is not happy about a specific sound. The integration aide is convinced noise is not a trigger as the school is in a very quiet suburb. However small things set her off like somebody blowing their nose or a certain type of bird call can send her into a meltdown. It's for this reason I am drifting toward the drug option even though last year I was strongly against it.

I wanted to ask about meltdowns. I'm trying to research them but what I find is very confusing. Some say a meltdown is like a panic attack. Others don't really differentiate between a meltdown and a tantrum.

Like any three year old my son has a lot of tantrums, usually because of something like I won't give him candy at 10PM. Or he will cry if he is tired/cranky.

But once in a while he starts crying for no apparent reason and it can last a while. I was assuming that this was because he wanted to communicate something but did not have the words. Sometimes he still does this when he is hungry for example and I have to figure out what's going on. I want to know if these instances count as meltdowns or not. I have never seen him have a panic attack.

We tried to get our son to fall asleep without the TV on a few nights ago. He was being quiet (he usually screams and cries until he gets his way when we try this), we thought he was tired and just went right to sleep ... but when we went in to check on him this is what we found!

[img][800:768]http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy30/Lally593/GEDC5004Large.jpg[/img]

It sounds to me like unexpected noise is a problem, not volume.

I think I may have used the wrong word. My son wasn't scared as in fear, but scarred, as in damaged emotionally, in a way that gave him a very negative gut reaction to most things associated with the place. From really little things - in our opinion, but a counselor pointed out later that they weren't little to him.

That is awesome.

We have a Mr. Tickle, too. My son calls him "Nickel."

My son brings Mr. Tickle to me when he wants me to tickle and chase him around.

My older son with classic autism would have meltdowns that would sort of turn into panic attacks. Something would happen to upset him, then he would not be able to stop crying. It would just go on and on and on--20 minutes, thirty-minutes--more if I was not there to help him. He would actually start breathing very quickly and shake when it happened.

The only thing that I would be able to do to help him when he had these attacks was to throw him in our playroom by himself with a children's video playing in the VCR and shut the door. Then when he got a prescription for Clonidine to use at night for sleep and extra anxiety control, I could give him this when he had one of these attacks and cause it to go away quickly.

Now, he's doing a lot better and I haven't seen one of these attacks for a while.

My younger son with OCD has some pretty severe reactions--loud, obnoxious crying--whenever things are out of order. However, he never starts hyperventilating or gets to the point that he seems unaware of his surroundings. You can calm him down by reordering things to his liking.

By the way, Washi's kid looks so cute! I know about kids needing the TV on to fall asleep--I have a couple of little insomniacs. Without meds, they'll stay up forever and eventually crash in front of a video.

Ok I see. So what your olders son was doing would be considered a "meltdown," I think, but not your younger son. I think many parents just lump all types of outbursts/tantrums into "meltdowns," which causes confusion.

Ahh I see. Do you mind if I ask what strategies you used to help your son deal with unexpected noise. We saw an OT last year. Her only suggestion was structuring our daughter's time to keep her busy and if the noise sensitivity is unmanageable then use earmuffs. The second suggestion remains impractical as she refuses to wear headphones or earmuffs.

This looks like my daughter's bed, she calls her fluffy bedmates her 16 "superfriends"....

LOL to "superfriends" My son usually only sleeps with one or two, he has a blanket he sucks on and that's the main thing he wants ... the rest were stored in the basket he's got on his head ... he loves to pull everything out.

My son doesn't really care for stuffed animals, but my wife made some stuffed numbers for him. They are his teddy numbers. And every night he goes to sleep clutching the magnadoodle...

Stuffed numbers are a very cute idea! Do they have eyes?

Hmmm. No, no eyes. When my wife first made them my son was carrying them around everywhere, though.