Flying with an autistic child

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hey all,

My daughter has been overseas for the past 12 months and now in a couple of months time she will be heading back home (australia). She just turned 4, non verbal and currently going through a phase where she screams non stop whole day and be very hyper at times.

The travel time is approx 10hours, the first part of the flight is 5 hours long then an almost 10 hours break before the next flight for another 5 hours. When we traveled with her 12 months ago, we were lucky she slept through the first flight but the second one was a nightmare as she wanted to leave her seat and wander around and included a lot of crying. At that point we did not have an diagnosis either and the flight crew were terrible who kept telling us to get her back in her seat and put the seat belt so she wouldn't move.

Now that she is a year older we are not looking forward to this trip especially with her screaming all the time. She is still not able to understand things so we could have at least tried getting her prepaid for this. a friend recommended giving her a dose of Phenergan so will sleep through this but i don't know if this is a good idea?

any tips or ideas to help us would be greatly appreciated.

I would talk to the pediatrician and find out what he recommends to give her to help her sleep through the flight. Something that may wear off after about 5 or 6 hours then give it to her again after the 10 hour layover.

Not only will it be difficult for you and the other passangers, but it will be incedibly difficult for her to be in that situation, I imagine. There is nothing wrong with giving kids something to make them sleep when they are going to be in those kind of situatons. It's very different than givng them something to make them sleep because the new NCIS is on tonight and the kid won't be asleep so you can watch it in peace, or something like that.

I'd make sure to talk to the pediatrician and get a prescription or recommendation of something. I'd also try it out a week or so before the flgiht. You don't want to be giving her something for the first time on the plane and it either doesn't work or has the opposite reaction.

My kids are NT but I have AS, so I have no practical esperience with kids on the spectrum except as being one. I have flown with a child once, but she was a bay and slept the entire way. I have gone on long car trips and I have given benadryl because they hated those long trips.

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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

Wish I could help with the screaming, but for the rest of it, there are excellent social stories pre-made just for flying (mostly by the airlines themselves) here:

http://autism.about.com/b/2009/04/12/fl ... source.htm

http://accessibility.theautismprogram.o ... f-aviation

Maybe you could start now working on a social story about "inside voice?" And then one where airplanes are a place for "inside voice?" You could try showing her to hold her hand to her throat when she's screaming, and then hold her hand to your throat when you talk quietly so she can feel the difference. (As an aside, how do they teach this to deaf children? I know vocalizing loudly in public can be a real issue with children who are born profoundly deaf. Whatever strategy they use might work for your daughter as well...)

thanks for your reply. will surely get in touch with the ped regarding this. And its just not the flight itself but the entire process at the airport of standing in line, the security checks, and the waiting pror to boarding the flight etc which i am sure she is going to give us a hard time and when you add the screaming into it, i can only image how it might be. So i'd def prefer her to be sleeping.

The experience of air travel was obviously causing a major sensory overload for your daughter on the prior trip. She is still too young to understand things well, so it is likely to happen again. For her sake, yours, the staffer's, and the other passenger's sakes, it is best to give her something to make her sleep through the experience, although it would be a good idea to have her up during the layover. Check with the pediatrician for something safe for her, and I agree with one of the other posters--try it on her a week or so before the trip to make sure it will work as it should.

Age and varying biochemistries can produce different responses in different people. My older brother gets pain relief from Aleve, but I don't. My older sister wasn't helped by glucosamine/chondroitin supplements, but they help me. Some of my relatives are helped by Tylenol, but not me. So do try the drug ahead of time. That's the only way to be sure it will work right when you really need it to.

And have a safe trip!

I don't have personal experience with this, but I've heard that if you contact the disability services at the airline there is a lot they can do to help make the trip through security easier.

Do videos hold her attention at all? If so, a portable DVD player or iphone or tablet that plays videos might be helpful for some of the time waiting in line, etc.

I agree with OliveOilMom and questor that the discomfort is not just yours and the other passengers, etc., it is likely hers as well. I personally don't feel bad about giving my son a sedative on long trips because on the one hand it helps me keep my sanity but on the other hand it helps because being cooped up on an air plane and having to put up with a lot of things that bother him is distressing for him.

Good luck. It sounds like you have a really challenging trip ahead of you.

You know all that stuff your kid wants but is not supposed to have (lots of cookies, candy, etc?) Bring it all on the plane with you! Also get some small gifts - new books, toys, whatever your kid likes and will keep her occupied.

I recently flew from Japan to the US east coast and was very concerned how he would be - he was fine and fell asleep halfway through it. I didn't even have to take out half the stuff I brought.

thank you all for your replies. At this stage we will be flying out sometime in july but we wanted to prepare ourseleves much in advance.

momsparky - thank you for the links and the tips for reducing her screaming. she has now slowly started to listen when we tell her to stop screaming. she does go back to it in a few minutes when again will stop if we tell her to so a little positive news for us, hopefully as time goes she will reduce it further.

oliveoilmom and quester - we will be getting in touch with the ped a few weeks before we leave. As long as the medication does not do any harm we wouldn't giving her something to get her to sleep for a few hours. Like you guys have said, we rather she sleep than disrupt the people and staff on board. it was very unpleasant when it happened last year.

Wreck-Gar and Bombaloo - at this point in time there is nothing in particular that holds her attention. not into videos or toys anymore. food is also an issue as she has problems with the texture so very limited on that as well. but i guess we can carry a few little things that might keep her busy for sometime. So i guess the prefered option would be if she slept through the flight. The actual flight time from A to B is 5 hours so that isn't too bad and then after the 10 hour layover is 5 hours again so once again not a very long flight.

zette - thanks for bringing this to my attention, I had no idea airports would accommodate us as far as moving through the lines and security quicker, this would honestly make things a whole lot easier for us.

thank you all once again for the advice.

When we fly it is about six hours. I'm actually the one who hates having no stimulation

Maybe bring a favorite book or buy a new one that keeps their attention like Where's Waldo or Eye spy. My kids never got tired of the blue covered Where's Waldo it eventually fell apart.

If they are older like mine I let them pick out magazines they want before flights or during long lay overs. I can't read flying or (I get nauseous) in a car so I have music or puzzle games.

as for screaming maybe she can scream into a travel pillow

coloring books or sketchbook

rubic's cube or similar

We have gameboys and I have a puzzle game on my mp3 player

netbook or ipad with games or movies

take extra power sources or batteries

Also, something chewy like gummy worms for taking off and landing because ear popping can be painful for some.

We flew all over the place to see everyone before we moved and then flew to France. I had my kids very prepared. First I put their T-shirts on that basically alerted people to the fact that my kids have autism. My daughters says "This is what Autism Looks Like" and my sons said "Autistic by day Deadly Ninja by Night". I made lots of social stories and I bought new things and new backpacks that were full of their things for the trip. We also got Pillow pets and some woman actually begged me to sell them to her LOL. They are stuffed animals that have a velcro strip that holds them like a stuffed animal and when you let it loose it turned into a pillow. Their new backpacks that were actually carry on luggage for kids so it had the bar that pulled out and wheels. We put their pillow pets (that you can find online if you do a google search) on the carry on back packs. We had lots of markers, paper, their nintendos and games....I got them each a new game and we got a few travel games and some magnet games (my son loved magnets at the time). We wrote our social stories so it sounded like an adventure.
Also we told them at the gates that our kids were autistic and that it was hard for me to stand for long periods due to my disease (we now know I have more than one). Dont be afraid to do this and dont let people be jerks, if they are find a manager. Most people are nice and help you to the front of the line. The last thing our kids want to do is wait. We let the kids take turns pushing buttons on elevators in the different airports and we had a rope that we all held onto so no one got lost and I was at the back and my husband at the front. Also there are earplugs that keep kids ears from popping or just use gum or candy if your child is old enough. If they get motion sickness those wrist things work really well we use them for my son in the car but he didnt seem to need them on the planes and took them off.
Also if you are having issues with your daughter having meltdowns the flying may be too much for her and I would also ask the doctor for a very low dose of a benzo like ativan JUST in case. Dont just use it because you are worried because she might surprise you, my kids did, they had a great time!
Here is the link for those ear plugs I mentioned http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/pro ... ctId=14762 also this site has a lot of great travel things.

I was also thinking, if you have a lap top or iPad you can load some movies for her. They do play movies on overseas flights but they may not be something she wants to watch.

LOL....I was just remembering when we would be going through the airport I'd be say "follow Papa, follow Papa" We had a great time.....we were on like five different flights and we had rental cars. They loved the flying, the cars and the hotels.....we hardly had any problem. It was also a lot of fun for them to meet their sister from my husbands....uh, oops, that he had before he met me....one night kind of thing. I wish we had her with us, we had a lot of fun and made lots of videos. She and my son had a great time playing the Wii that we brought with us to the hotel. We stayed there for a week and then visited my brothers and cousins and my sister in laws.

liloleme, thank you for all your suggestions. The only hurdle we face is that our daughter is not at a stage to understand everything we tell her. always wants to wander about and she has no particular interest at the moment that could possibly keep her busy for a more than 10 to 15minutes. no idea how to keep her in her seat, this is our major concern.

On our last flight when she woke up during the flight she wanted a can of coke she saw with the air hostess as they were serving dinner, wouldn't stop until i got it for her and no it wasn't for her to drink but just to hold onto. We are absolutely dreading such an event again as she is now older and a lot louder than she was before. So if our case i personally feel medication is a big yes. also trying to get a couple of family members to tag along so we occupy more seats on the flight and she can move about between us if required.

god help us!

nothing wrong with wanting the coke, i did eventually get it for her. its just that it was during dinner service and I had to wait for them to come by near us to ask for it. it caught us off guard and we were not prepared for it. had we know she would be interested in this we would have carried some ourselves. I guess we will have to carry a few random things and hope she find them interesting.