big mamma

Karen, My daughters sunderland test came back with no peaks for casein but that's what I took out first anyway and within 3 days her bowel habits had improved enormously. Definitely worth a go I'd say.

Im actually going through a programme with Sleep Scotland at the moment ! Just at the early stages of filling in sleep diaries etc. Daughter ( aged 4 ) takes 1.5mg of melatonin about 1/2 hour before bed. When I tried her on higher doses it seemed to reverse her sleep cycle - she stayed up most of the night and slept during the day!! It took me a long time to experiment with it again after that but the smaller amount definitely has a calming effect on her although it doesn't stop her hight time wakenings! Biggest breakthrough I've has is letting my daughter watch a tape of 'House of Tiny Tearaways' where the little girl constantly got up during the night as she wanted to sleep with her dad and mum got relegated to child's bed. When the parents were doing the 'rapid return' technique the child got up something near 300 times during the night . It was unbelievably stressful for the parents and my child was horrified at what was going on. When I explained to her how much nicer it would be if she stayed in her bed it seemed to click that she wasn't much different! Since then she has been trying really hard to stay in her own room and is now much more receptive to reward stickers etc which didn't seem to motivate her at all before. I think actually seeing on screen how not sleeping well affected the whole family has helped her to see the bigger picture - early days yet though. Good luck with your endeavours!!

Hi Lindy-Lou, I live here but didn't get tickets - they were too hard to get hold of. Glad you enjoyed your visit here though !!

flutter - <'>

That's such good news - hope he's very happy there

It may be that the school are covering themselves in case you wish to pursue a claim against them at some stage against their Public Liability insurance - definition of injury extends to include mental anguish etc, impairment to quality of life etc. You are certainly entitled to get copies of these documents though and I can't see why it couldn't be given to you within a couple of days.

Thanks so much for the replies. Florrie, do you bake with xylitol do you know and if so do you just replace the sugar with the same amount of xylitol? Must admit I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed about now removing fruit from her diet - it was the only thing that she would reliably eat which had some goodness in it !

Hi All, Still struggling along the GF/CF route ( though finding it much easier ) and have turned out a few quite edible things on the home baking front. However it looks like my daughter may be suffering from candida which means the scariest step of all - no sugar in the diet ( or very little ). Yikes !!! She has an incredibly sweet tooth and I think this is going to be a bigger battle than taking away the milk. Does anyone follow a low sugar diet and use the above product in baking ? We don't use aspartame so that's no good. Thanks

Welcome Eva <'>

Thats wonderful news for you all.

Welcome Debs <'>

The local Carers Centre usually have staff trained in filling in these forms and are very helpful.

I'd stay put if I were you - family support is soooo important to me ( my hubby works in London a lot as well ) and like you we also have had lots of help from the services in our area. that's my tuppence worth in !

Img of melatonin helps relax my daughter into sleep - anymore and she becomes wide awake during the night . Sometimes less is more !

Elun, Sounds like you've got a lot on your plate at the moment. You've obviously done absolutely everything you can think of to help your younger son and I would think you must be overwhelmed by the thought that your eldest may also be on the spectrum. I know what you mean about the relationship thing with your husband - it's so difficult to make time for each other when life is so draining. Are the Easter hols approaching for you ? If so, why not take a day just to bullet point the differences your eldest seems to have then when school starts back make an appointment with the Head Teacher to get the ball rolling. I know it's scary to start the ball rolling but it may get rid of that sick feeling that you've probably permanently got just now anyway. Best of luck however you approach it. <'>

You could try a course of liquid echinacea or echinacea lollipops from your local health store. It does seem to be a particularly bad time for viruses and bugs just now - nursery is rife with them.

Hi Deb, Maybe you have learned the 'triggers' which previously provoked strong reactions from him and have adapted your environment to more suit him. I know I did this for my daughter without even realising it! My daughter was diagnosed with an ASD at age 2 1/2 years old and her behaviour has changed greatly since then but her core difficulty - social anxiety - continues to cause her a great deal of stress. This has increased as she has had to adapt to the challenges of a nursery environment ( albeit a special needs base of a mainstream class ). If you feel there are still difficulties insist that your child gets adequate support for a nursery placement or you could find that he struggles quite a bit.

Smurf - i have read reports before of how many autistic children don't contain the right antibodies after vaccination to recognise the illness and be immune to it. Wasn't it Donna Williams who caught various disease many times ? Pingu - I am so sorry to hear about this. Even if you don't believe in it take your child to a professional homeopath and ask them to antidote the MMR. The quicker you do this the better. The only thing that could come out of this is good, no harm can be done using homeopathy. Thinking of you. <'>

Baddad - I thought this poem was TOP OF THE HOUSE - 90

Florrie, Hope things start getting better for you soon <'>

chocolate

Florrie, I'm thinking of you and hoping things ger better <'>

That's such great news !!

No idea ! It's very frustrating to be dismissed by both my child's doctor and consultant. I'm sure they think I'm clinging on to a false hope of recovery when in fact I'm absolutely thrilled that my daughter's bowel problems have improved so drastically. Why would I keep her on a diet which in truth I find pretty difficult to follow - how much easier would my life be if I hadn't seen any benefits ? At our last visit to consultant when I explained the benefits the diet was having she remarked that I must have been giving her too much milk before and that was causing the constipation! I just conserve my energy now to try and master some basic gf/cf cooking

Hello Helen and wecome <'> , My daughter is nearly 4 and attends a 'special needs' base of a mainstream nursery. After 'coping' there ( and sometimes not ) she is exhausted and not in the mood for a chat ! Hope you find some useful things her and everyone is happy to answer questions.