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

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Last edited by Washi on 08 Dec 2011, 6:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Delete.

Last edited by Washi on 08 Dec 2011, 6:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Does anyone here have any experience with melatonin? I managed to get some (liquid) a week ago and it seems to do absolutely nothing. I have it to my son tonight at 8PM. It's nearly 11 and he's still awake.

My husband uses it on occasion for sleep, and I know many people with autistic kids who use it. I have also found that it helps me a little with occasional mild insomnia.

However, prescription clonidine is much more effective and stronger. It was originally used to treat high blood pressure, then it started getting used for anxiety issues connected with autism. It is not used in the daytime much anymore because it causes sleepiness. However, it is regularly used at night for sleep and anxiety. It also works great for a severe daytime meltdown--just a small bit of the med and the meltdown stops.

I also give it to my kids before they are expected to do something extremely stressful--before my son performs in a pageant at school (he has stage fright), etc.

I highly recommend the following book, available from Amazon.com, to help understand meds:

http://www.amazon.com/Child-Adolescent- ... 008&sr=8-1

There are always new meds coming out, of course, but they generally fall into the classes discussed in the book and will work similarly and have similar side effects.

On a bright note, my four-year-old with Asperger's and OCD [some people might say that he is technically HFA], finally pooped in the potty yesterday for the first time.

The therapist had him in the bathroom starting at 10:00 in the morning in only his underwear, repeatedly getting him on and off the potty. She brought a bunch of high-fiber foods in the bathroom, and they read his picture dictionaries together (he still loves the alphabet, but he is more into picture dictionaries now instead of writing his letters). At noon, with no success, I gave him 2 fiber gummies and a Fleet children's chewable laxative (purchased off of Amazon.com). He finally pooped twice in the potty before the therapist left at 2 p.m., earning much praise from me, the therapist, and his father.

Of note, my younger son has known for a long time where the poop goes (he can tell you just fine), and he has been peeing in the potty for a while. However, he intentionally holds in his stools and prefers to poop in training pants/underwear for psychological reasons.

I don't plan to use laxatives all of the time, but pooping in the potty twice was at least a start.

Ok thanks...I will have to wait till I get back to the US to start looking into any prescription meds.

I can't make any official announcement yet but I will say that I had an interview recently that went quite well.

I have no idea how I am gonna get this kid from Tokyo to the US east coast...

I had to take both of my kids on a plane ride to a funeral in 2008, and I gave them both Benadryl before we left for the trip. Also, if you take a super-early or super-late flight, there might be empty seats on the plane--less noise, less crowded, an extra seat available for your younger child (instead of the baby sitting in a parent's lap to save a plan ticket price).

Also, for the plane ride, I purchased a large purse which I stuffed with small toys, crayons, and coloring books and my ID only--make up, etc. went in the suitcase. You might also purchase some kind of small electronic child's toy for each of your kids and don't give it to them until the plane ride. (My kids use a Scholastic toy touch tablet and Leapfrog computerized writing toy in the car.)

Nothing to see here

Last edited by nostromo on 08 Dec 2011, 6:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Edit: Just deleting my OT Aspie rant.

Last edited by Washi on 08 Dec 2011, 6:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I admit I didn't give it much of a chance but melatonin didn't do anything for us either. I wish you luck with the plane ride, we have relatives out of state who offered to pay for our plane tickets so we could visit, at the time my son was in the habit of screaming constantly and was very difficult to feed, I refused to go - the mere thought was awful.

That's great! I suppose we will be going through this at some point in the near future.

How long was your flight? I am looking at 13 hrs to Chicago or Detroit, change planes, then another three hours to the final destination. This is grueling enough for an adult; I have no idea how my son will take it. Sometimes he gets upset and starts screaming and this can last for hours. If he does this on the plane I have no idea what will happen. And he can barely sit still for 5 minutes most of the time...

Thanks, lol.

Last edited by Washi on 08 Dec 2011, 6:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have to admit that the flight was only a couple of hours followed by a three-hour car trip.

My parents live three hours away, and we always used to schedule the trips for the afternoon so that my son would nap a large part of the time. (Not really comparable, I know.)

Maybe there is some way that you can schedule the trip to occur during the night so that if you give your son some Benedryl or cold medicine, he will at least sleep for several hours of the trip?

Over the holidays, we will go by car to visit my husband's 81-year-old cancer-stricken mother, who lives 7.5 hours away, and I've already started preparing for this trip. We will stop to see my parents on the way and on the way back, making the trip longer but easier on everyone. (Maybe you could choose a long enough layover for everyone to have a break?).

I have purchased several new electronic toys over the Internet from the toy section of Amazon.com and an incredibly cheap eReader and Android-powered laptop off of ahappydeal.com. I will also be bringing an old laptop that takes CDs, a bunch of CDs and DVDs in a carrying case, a mobile DVD player that I already had, a bunch of books and art supplies, small toys, etc.

I will probably be reading picture books to the kids whenever they are not occupied with electronics or drawing. Neither my parents nor my husband's mother has adequate supplies to entertain my kids.

My husband gets onto me for over-planning trips and bringing too much stuff, but he gets more upset if the kids get completely bored and start fighting, whining, and tearing up things.

The last time we visited my husband's mother instead of her flying here was in '08. My older son grabbed her TV and threw it on the floor during a meltdown. After that visit, I didn't want to go back. But now she's 81, has cancer, and doesn't want to fly....

Done.

Back OT, its intensive toilet training weekend #1 in our house this weekend.
We are all set, I have ripped, converted and loaded Chugginton and Numberjacks videos on the iPad and will get a pile more on there, and with that and some games and toys, we will be camping out for very extended periods in the loo(s). Fortunately my boy is pretty regular, fill him up with something yummy and it won't be long until something happens.

Fun, fun, fun.

My younger son hasn't pooped in the potty all day today--I guess that he's holding it again. The therapist is going to take him in the bathroom again tomorrow to try to get him to poop in the potty again. (Maybe if he just does it a few times, he'll stop trying to hold it in.)

I don't pray often, but I actually prayed for success with the potty training before my son pooped in the potty yesterday.

Good luck!