sueeltringham

Firstly, hugs to you both. Be reassured Nursery/school will have to make provision for him, so don't let that worry you -they cannot discriminate against him for not being toilet trained. Children on the spectrum find it much harder to toilet train as they really don't see the need socially, plus they have a lot of sensory/integration problems which make it harder for them to sense 'wetness' and the 'urge' to go to the toilet. I'm not sure if you've contacted your GP/paediatrician, but we found ours pretty helpful, although we had a slightly different problem. It's difficult to recommend anything as i don't know what you've tried, but when we had problems I put my son back in nappies and just let him relax about the whole thing. We tried a few months later and basically built the toilet visit into his routine so he knew he had to go then and try. This worked well for us, but it took months before he would go to the toilet out of his routine because he needed to go. We had to use loads of rewards and incentives (TV worked for us, but it might be something different for you both). I had to keep the whole thing incredibly up-beat and positive. Any negative reaction from me used to cause my son to jump up and down and laugh, so it rewarded him (negative reinforcement), so next time he wet himself again to try and get the same reaction. Hope that is of some help, Sue

Apparently eating things like wallpaper and wood can be a craving for cellulose. I've heard it's quite common for ASD kids, particularly on a GF/CF diet. Not sure what you can do about it, though! I've just given my 6 year old a teething ring (one of those for babies!) and told him it's to chew on as I was really annoyed when I found chewed up new Christmas toys and bite marks on everything, including his sisters new dolls! Seems to have worked! Sue

Hello, Thought I would introduce myself. I have two children: Joe (6) who was recently diagnosed HFA/Asperger's and Rebecca 21 months. We've known Joe had autistic tendencies from about 3 (and much earlier than that if we're to be honest), but his lack of social communication and interaction and poor play skills became very obvious when he entered preschool. After many, many appointments (paed's, communication team, CAMHS, ed psych., etc.) and much pushing on our behalf, we finally managed to get him diagnosed and make school listen, and eventually get him statemented (after being told there was no way he'd get a statement -but that's a very long saga). Just before Christmas we found that he'd been statemented for 16 hours which is WAY more than we were expecting, so we're now very happy on the education side of things. The headteacher is on our side and he now has excellent class teachers and a great teaching assistant so is flourishing in school. I can't believe that this time last year we were in the depths of despair and about to take him out of maistream education and consider home ed. I know we're on a very long road of discovery and we have many ups and downs, but I try to stay positive and expect that nothing is going to happen without a fight. Looking forward to meeting you all on here, Sue

Thanks Mumble. We read Temple Grandin with great interest a while ago and reasoned that Joe liked pressure as he seeks hugs and adult contact when anxious, also squeezes himself into a ball -we tuck him up tightly into bed and he sleeps between the wall and a pillow -usually. I know the teeth issue is very complex as sometimes he avoids eye contact, sometimes he's good with eye contact. We've never been able to touch inside his mouth and brushing teeth has always been a nightmare. I've spoken to Joe's teaching assistant this morning and she's writing him a social story about teeth. He's lost a few already and the tooth fairy has visited us. However, I think there are a couple of events that have increased his anxiety -one was seeing a friend in school being pushed and knocked into a wooden table resulting in loss of consciousness, blood and teeth knocked out. The other event was when his last tooth came out and was lost (we think either Joe or the cat ate it!). Although he's very calm in the daytime about losing teeth and getting new ones (understands it all), the problems surface at night and there is no reasoning with him. The current problem seems to be that Joe's decided he's not going to lay down (to sleep) as his teeth might fall out, consequently he's trying to sleep sitting up! Last night I eventually persuaded him to lay down and tucked him in tightly and held him, until he was more relaxed. I feel a lot better today -more positive! I know some of you parents struggle every night getting them to sleep, but Joe has always been so good about sleeping and going to bed (as long as we get his routine right). This all came as a bit of a shock, especially seeing him so anxious and wet with sweat and shaking night after night until the early hours. Thanks, Sue

OK, I'm new here and wondered if anyone else had similar problems and how they have solved it. My son, 6 is an Aspie and is paranoid about his teeth to the point where we can't look at his mouth or go anywhere near his face (yep, we've got some desensitization work to do!). He's lost several teeth which was pretty traumatic (at the time) and now he has one top and one bottom one really wobbly. He refuses to lay down in bed as he says he doesn't want the teeth to fall out. He refuses to sleep in case they fall out and we now have one huge problem with anxiety, lack of sleep, refusing to eat, in a huge downward spiral. The only thing that seems to be working is holding him really tight until he's calmed down, but some nights he's not sleeping until the early hours and we're getting worn down by this, understandably. One of the key things is he wants to know exactly WHEN they will fall out and in desperation the other night I told him in five days time. Now he thinks they are going to fall out on Thursday -not sure how we'll handle that one. Just wondered if anyone has been through similar and how they've dealt with it. Cheers, Sue