stillwaiting

Hi, I havent posted here for a long long time just wonder if anyone has experienced any similar problems. I could write a book but will try and keep it as short as possible. My son is now 13, has severe autism, non verbal. We started to have problems about 2 years ago, when he began changing from a settled, calm, happy child to a child that cried a lot and began to self harm which has escalated significantly. He has lots of problems around food overeating, then not eating, requesting food then refusing it. He's been on various medications treating him for anxiety and depression, citalopram, fluoxtine, risperidone, sodium valproate etc none of which has improved things. He has a poor quality of life now does not enjoy any activites he previously did like trampolining, swimming and soft play all of these are now a trigger for him to become upset and self harm (nipping his body, headbutting walls and floors.) Hes had a lot of bowel problems over this time, treated with movicol, sodium picolsulphate. His bowel was shown to be impacted at one point and he had a full clearout with picolax then he had an enema. Ive been pushing all the time that I believe his sypmtoms are physical and recent blood and stool samples have indication infection in both so we are now been referred on to another paediatric gastroenterologist at a different hospital,the reasearch I have done is pointing me to suspect that maybe he has crohns. Anyone had any simiae experiences? Thanks in advance

Hi, I haven't posted on here for many years but after some advice from anyone out there if they've had any similar problems. My son is 11, severe autism, non verbal. We have an ongoing problem of him putting things up his nose. Its always the same nostril, and we are now onto 4th time since just November where he has had to go into hospital and get a general anaesthetic to remove them. Previous to that it was in March last year when he had 7 things removed at once. It seems that now its become routine, he is such a senosry child so must be getting something out of it. was just wondering if anyone had any silmiar experiences and if therir child just grew out of it. Any support would be appreciated thanks x

Hi, No the paint doesnt seem to do him any harm at all. (Just stresses his poor mother out! ) Just typical he is a really fussy eater and doesnt eat hardly any food but will lick paint,eat soil,grass etc. Louise x

Hi, My son is 5.5yrs old and completely non-verbal all of these comments give me great hope that he might talk one day.

Hi, Just to say licking (and spitting) is my 5.5yr old ASD sons current obsession. Not just people, but walls, windows everything. It is really awful and driving me crazy. We have to paint the walls every weekend as just licks patches completely off. He has severe autism and doesnt play with anything, not interested in watching videos or telly or anything so is a complete nightmare as when we are in the house this is all he does and you cant distract him at all. As said in a previous post im just waiting for the obsession to move onto something else! Louise

Hi, Just to let you know that I understand how you are feeling as we are in the same situation. My son is 5 with severe autsim. He has had a really restricted diet (about 6 foods - ready brek,kids brand asda curry&rice,milky ways,bread,mcdonalds chips and only drinks lemonade) for 3 years now and it is such worry. Have saw a dietician which was of no use. I believe as the previous post says that it will get better with age. In October when we were away in a hotel for the weekend we had a mini breakthrough he took some bacon off our plate and started eating it! We were gobsmacked I was nearly crying that my little boy had ate some bacon!!! Thats how bad it gets!!! Also had some setbacks such as asda has recently stopped making his curry that he eats nearly every day of the week I even rang head office but no luck. I still worry all of the time, he is very underweight so all we can do is give him as much as he likes of the things he will eat. He attends a special school and they also try but without success. Hope it helps to know you arent alone. Louise