Calsdad

I suppose I should have said, the single mattresses cost £35+vat from the manufacturer and I would (possibly) be able to get a discount if there was enough interest to buy a few, or indeed I am ordering other items a the same time. But this is the raw cost and doesn't include delivery, anyone interested, just let me know!

Hi all, It has been a long time since I have posted on the forum, my son and myself have been through several school hoops and I am glad to say he is quite settled at the moment (at the moment) but my reason for this post is that I have for many years since my son was around 3 been struggling with toileting or rather his lack of the proper use of it, he wees in his bed daily and several times per night. One of the practical tools i use is obviously a waterproof mattress, but for many years I have been using hospital style rubber covered foam mattresses which tbh are not much use! He always picks at them and opens them up very easily while fiddling in the night. Well, I own a furniture business and had not been able to find anything better until recently, I have found a company in the UK that produces waterproof mattresses I've had one on callums bed now for a month and it is as good as new and more importantly still waterproof! The covering on it is not rubber and is backed with a fabric that I doubt he will be able to rip and best of all it is sprung not foam! Anyway, to the point.... I have already offered these to local asd parents and want to do the same for anyone that is in need of one nationally, I can offer them at cost price and they can be collected or delivered (at cost) I am not a charity and have my own asd child and everything that financially goes hand in hand with this so, although I will not ask to make a profit, I will also not be able to deliver for free or subsidise the product!! Anyone that is interested can contact me via my website here: Ever Furniture The mattresses are not on there, it is not a normal product for me to sell but rather one I feel may be of some use. Malc

It must've been released as it's available on one of the illegal download sites I accidentally came across. It looks like a good film. Malc

I've posted by 2 penneth!! It's not appeared yet but I guess they have to vet them 1st. Cheers Malc

Hi, Thanks all for the replies, i'm glad to hear it's not just me having trouble with the prescriptions!! There hasn't been (so far) any increase in appetite for C, he has quite a strict diet anyway and never used to snack between meals nor every eats lots of sweets. He is still having the same size meals and hasn't mentioned being hungry on this medication, hopefully this is how it will continue as neither he or I want to see him pile on a load of weight!! Cheers malc

C has been taking it for 6 weeks now and he had a period where his anger was very controlled and also his need for routine was not as strict, he has however had a bad couple of weeks at school with a few outbursts of hitting teachers and throwing chairs, mainly because his support teacher has had to look after him and another pupil because another of the staff was ill, he doesn't like to share his teacher. I have been trying to get in touch with his paed to discuss his medication for the past 3 weeks but haven't managed to yet, I had to phone over a week ago to ask for a repeat prescription for Risperdal. The drill is that the paed at the hospital writes a presription and takes it to the hospital pharmacy, but I phoned every day for 9 days about this prescription and kept getting told by his secretary that she would try to get hold of him etc etc. Anyway finally on Friday she said that she had faxed a letter to the local GP surgery for them to write a prescription out, great I thought as it's much more convenient....... I went to get the prescription as arranged at 5:45pm and was told that none of the doctors would prescribe it!! As it wasn't licensed for children under 16 and none of them were willing to go against the listed advice!! I had run out of the medication in the morning and so would have had none for C for the weekend!!!! I explained this and one of the docs agreed to prescribe enough for the weekend! As he was about to sort it out I noticed the letter that had been faxed to them from the paeds office, it said 2.5mg twice a day!!!!!! thats a 5mg dose!! C is only on 0.5mg or 500microgramms!! It's a ###### good job I noticed eh!?! lord only knows what would've happenned had I just given it to him. I will be having words with the paed or rather his secratary on Monday morning!! Does anyone else have hassle getting prescriptions? Malc

Hi all, My Son C has been taking Risperdal (Risperidone) for 15 days now and it has made a huge difference, especially in his school life. He is much less impulsive and isn't phased by the things that he was before. For example he is met every morning by his support teacher at 8:50am, it used to be a great big deal to him if she was a minute late and he would start panicing which would usually set him up for a bad day he now simply isn't bothered. He also has a thermometer guage that they use to monitor his level of anger and before it was frequently up at the top of the scale and now he has been down at the bottom every day for 5 days in a row. His sleeping is much improved also from an average of 3 hours a night up to 8!! He's also extremely chirpy and happy all day, infact the only down side to it so far is that he is very excitable and a bit more hyperactive. He's taking 500 microgramms per day (0.25 mg 2xperday). Has anyone else found such a dramatic effect with this medication? Anyone that has experienced it long term that has any advice about what may be to come? Is it going to stay this good?(I'm praying) Cheers Malc

Hi baddad, Being a single dad of an ASD child I can see where you are coming from, especially with the views of some people of single fathers and their ideas that it the childs behaviour may be something to do with his/her situation in the home with a dad only. I too would be reluctant to allow my son to go alone with this woman, whom may have the best of intentions. Infact I would probably just say no, on the grounds that she is not a friend or family member just an adult from the school. If he doesn't know her socially then she shouldn't be allowed into the circle of trust. If I was to let my son go alone with someone in this situation I think it would undo a lot of the work about strangers and the dangers of trusting them, it would certainly fuzzy his boundries with regards this as he is very absolute and just doesn't talk to people he doesn't know. however this is my son and everyone is different. If I were going to consider this I would probably suggest that I go too for the dog walk so as to see what the interaction was like and ensure it was appropriate. Cheers Malc

I've also heard this situation aswell, that SS won't actually get involved in the first place unless they ###### well have to!! Again this is a case of the postcode lottery and how well SS are funded. Once involved though they can open a few doors for you but generally will want to be more involved than just giving you help ie they need to do reviews etc etc. A friend of mine with an ASD child can't get help from SS locally as they basically don't want to commit because they don't have to, it keeps the figures easier to manage and gives better results at the end of the year. Malc

My son has got a social worker and Social services also have prental resposability for him. this was started after he was removed from his mothers care after it became apparent she was not treating him appropriately. He is subject to a care order (which actually gets revoked today and he is no longer under SS care). anyway to cut a very long story short..... SS have been a brilliant help and it is unfortunate but it is realitly that without SS help C would have had to wait for assessment and for all other aspects of help such as clinical pshyciatrists etc but with SS these things have happened for him almost immediately. I am in the fortunate position that the SS dept that is invlolved in C's welfare is not my local authority and so I only see them every 6 months anyway for a LAC review. So whenever we have needed anything I can phone and get them to try and sort it. I have heard terror stories about SS in certain regions and i've no doubt that this is true as i've had dealings with less than proffessional SS workers also but fortunately the great british art of complaining meant that incorrect and personal opinion decisions were quashed. to sum up I would say that SS are an absolutely brilliant resource if used correctly especially for opening doors to other forms of help, disability equipment, queue jumping etc. But be aware that not all social workers are trained to deal with ASD kids and you may find that you are more of an "expert" that they!! Cheers Malc

Mine isn't like me, well it has been similar once during an incident with a birthday candle!! Malc

Try not to get too upset about it, it's obvious that the school is the failure and not you or your child. My son was regularly getting sent home from school when he became violent as there was nothing else they can do, but there has never been any suggestion of exclusion since his diagnosis. I think this is what makes all the difference. Callum has a 1 to 1 support teacher all day long in school and she can take him out of the class and do work with him if it gets too much for him. He has a thermometer chart which he uses to say how angry or upset he is at any point in time. Any school which excludes an ASD child needs some serious complaining about!! Local coucil, Paediatrician, LEA, school itself, OFSTED etc etc. Is your child statemented? If she is then all of the relevant authorities need to be asking what the school is using the money for if not to support your ASD child and give her the education she is entitled to, if she needs more help than the level of statement gives then it needs to be reviewed. To be expelling a child with an ASD is just going to have 0 effect on her, what she will need is an appropriate level of support from school and other support agencies. Don't take this lying down, give them hell and let them know IT'S NOT RIGHT. Take care Malc

Aaaaaarrrgghhhh, the loan one that Brook mentioned, picture loans, the whole things really bugs me but the most annoying part is that he's on the phone asking for the loan and then has to say the immortal line "how much did we want to borrow again?" to his wife, then "Oh yes, �25000" as if it is just some small insignificant amount. Never ever, ever ever will I be phoning picture for a loan.......Or a friendly chat about football!! Malc

I thought it was such a good idea that we've been out and bought a couple of white tshirts and some iron on transfer paper, Callum is now the proud owner of a "Yu-Gi-Oh" autism T-shirt!! Malc

Has anyone tried the Bus and Cafe training software here - http://www.virart.nott.ac.uk/asi/ I found it very useful in teaching callum the correct way to deal with the 2 situations, more free software like this is definitely needed. After working for Linkage community trust my eyes were opened to what software there is out there to aid autistic learning but it's all so damn expensive!! Malc