Fionamg

I find it nearly impossible to take my three out unless I strap the youngest (3) into a pushchair or she pulls me over and trips me up. I daren't let go of her as she has no sense of danger and doesn't realise that she could get lost or hurt. She will just run out of an open door and into the road. It is very stressful as I'm down to one hand and having to concentrate on not being pulled over so its hard to concentrate on the other two as well. It is difficult when they are doing things that make them look badly behaved and you get the other parents tut-tutting or saying they need a good smack. You are stressed out enough already without others judging you. Just remember that children do improve and it's not going to be like this forever. It was only three years ago that my middle child (7) was doing exactly the same thing but within a year she had stopped all the worst behaviour and now comes home with good behaviour reports all the time. It is amazing what difference a year makes! Fiona

No, I don't and I don't know anyone who does. I know that they're big in the US and you can get them over the internet from the US but I don't know enough about them. Sorry Fiona

Sorry Bid, my fault. I didn't realise Fiona [Paula, we prefer not to name professionals on the forum...PMs are good for exchanging this kind of information...Bid]

Hi I have two children with AS and I know plenty of families with two children affected. I know one family where all five children are affected to some degree and the father has been diagnosed too. His brother's family are also badly affected with all three children affected. I know another family with three children with AS/language disorders. Girls are often harder to diagnose and get diagnosed later than boys. Fiona

Hi Paula My friend is going to court on Thursday, ss are going for a care order. Her son also has rages which I have experienced and no-one could cope with them, disabled or not, and he is not 13 stone. They are saying his rages are because she sets no boundaries and the sw says there's nothing wrong with him. He also has issues around food except that he doesn't eat anything and is very light and also suffers from constipation. Please could you give me the name of your doctor in Guilford as she could do with an independant assessment. Thanks and good luck Fiona

Hi Paula Please could you give me the name of the specialist that you saw in Guilford. My friend could do with getting a proper assessment for her son. Thanks Fiona

Hi Paula Unfortunatly you are not alone. A friend of mine is going through almost exactly the same thing. It is frightening to read that it is happening to others as I am appalled by what is going on with my friend. Fiona

I have posted but thought I'd better introduce myself. My name is Fiona and I have three children. The oldest, my son (8) has ASD, my daughter (7) has DiGeorge Syndrome (a deletion on chromosome 22) and my youngest daughter (3) has ASD. My children have multiple allergies such as milk, eggs, nuts, penicillin and my oldest is on a milk-free diet. My youngest has been on a milk-free diet since birth and we are now trying her on a gluten-free diet with good results so far. My son had a terrible time with cows milk and suffered very bad eczma until I took him off it. I then (rather foolishly) put him back on cows milk at two and within a couple of weeks he had lost all his speech and all his understanding of speech, which had been good. I didn't make a connection between milk and losing speech as you don't expect cows milk to have that sort of effect! We had him assessed and got a diagnosis of autism and I was told that he had had an autistic regression. It wasn't until 18 months later that I made the connection and took him off cows milk again. In a week he went from single words to putting words together and has just gone on from there. I'm not saying it cured his autism, he is still just as autistic but he is no longer lethargic, tired all the time, can concentrate and so can learn. He is in a mainstream school and is doing well. I took no chances with my youngest and never put her on cows milk. She has however stopped making progress and has gone from being 'intellegent' which is what we were told at her diagnosis to having severe learning difficulties only 18 months later, so she must have made no progress at all during that time. In desperation and bearing in mind my sons' experience I am now trying a gluten-free diet. Time will tell. Sorry this is so long but I had complicated children (don't we all) Fiona

My daughter has now been on the diet for a grand total of three weeks and there have been improvements in the sensivivity of her head which was hypersensitive. The nursery have noticed improvements in her ability to sit, she no longer squirms around constantly, her concentration is better and her eye contact has improved. At two when she was diagnosed the speech therapist, who I have know a long time and is very experienced, said that she thought Alison would do alright but 18 months down the line the E.P. has said that she is so far behind that she has severe learning difficulties. The main difference between then and now was the amount of bread Alison was eating. She had gone from not liking bread to eating up to six slices a day. We are continuing with the "silly" diet and see how far we get. Fiona

We get the gluten free chicken nuggets and fish fingers from Sainsbury's but their sausages were tough going so we get gluten free sausages from M&S. There are also a lot of 100% beef beef-burgers which are gluten free. There's so much stuff out at the moment that Alison has hardly noticed the difference. Our only difficult time is breakfast (hence the corn flake question). Fiona

Thanks for that, that's a good idea. On the coeliacs website Tesco's own brand has just been put back on the list of gluten-free but the name brands are definitely out. I shall try a specialist brand just to be on the safe side. Fiona

Thanks for the link, it's a bit clearer now. M&S and Sainsbury's both have corn flakes in their gluten-free lists but their lists may be out of date so I shall have to check. Fiona

Hi My name is Fiona and I have started my daughter Alison (3) on a GF diet. We are now into the second week and have already seen improvements. Alison has lost the sensitivity she had about her head and I have been able to brush her teeth and wash her hair for the first time in 18 months without screaming, yelling, running round the house (and that's just me!). I'm a bit confused about the status of cornflakes. Most own brand corn flakes appear on the gluten free list but they also contain barley extract which I thought was a source of gluten. I know that coeliacs can tolerate a certain amount of barley but wasn't sure if it was the same for GF diets for autistics. Are corn flakes alright? I am an old hand at milk-free diets as my son (8) is also autistic and is lactose intolerent as well as allergic to cows milk so the CF diet is situation normal as far as we are concerned. Hope someone can help Fiona