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MelowMeldrew

Water obsession

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My son has always had this from very early on, he is obsessed with turning taps on and letting the water run, or he will fill a cup and pour it away, we have noticed his obsession has almost doubled in frequency the last year or so, and we have found he will even awake in the middle of the night to play with it. Initially we thought he had an underlying medical issue (!) because he kept asking to go to the toilet many times in a day. We discovered he did this because he knew we were aware of his playing with water, so he made up the 'Want to go to the toilet' excuse, now we know with certain exceptions when he tells us, it is because he wants to go to the kitchen or the bathroom to run taps all the time. I am considering locking taps (really !), in an attempt to discourage or at least prevent him doing this 20 times a day. Anyone else had this ? If we ever get a water meter he will bankrupt us and you think I am joking ! The sheer waste and pointlessness of it is staggering. How do I address this ?

 

This doesn't seem very helpful. http://en.allexperts.com/q/Autism-1010/200...ld-autistic.htm

Edited by MelowMeldrew

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Would he accept water play equipment instead?

Trays and containers, pumps and sprays?

There are a lot of imaginative and interesting toys on the market for using with water, and if he's doing it for the sensory stimulation, he might like more variety than a tap can manage.

 

The website you quoted had quite a lot of suggestions to try, why did you not think that it was particularly helpful?

Edited by Bard

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quote name='Bard' date='Aug 26 2008, 09:07 AM' post='229677']

Would he accept water play equipment instead?

Trays and containers, pumps and sprays?

There are a lot of imaginative and interesting toys on the market for using with water, and if he's doing it for the sensory stimulation, he might like more variety than a tap can manage.

 

The website you quoted had quite a lot of suggestions to try, why did you not think that it was particularly helpful?

 

 

It seemed to suggest replacing one obsession with another, and there was no other way to really address it. Medication was a silly suggestion too, I'll never go that road. I don't think we could contemplate giving him carte blanche to carry on via variations of it, I want to stop it. We tried a few times he simply empties everything out near him, and its the taps again.... When he is allowed free reign the house is flooded, we lost half a ceiling at one house we lived in because he turned the bathtaps on and just watched it... no matter if you put water in a bowl or something a water pistol whatever, it's TAPS he wants. Why does he need sensory stimulation via water at 3am of a morning ? It's an obsession, so there must be a way of addressing it. We could lock the bathroom from him, prevent him entering it without supervision, but the kitchen is an issue. He has no other motivation to do anything else either. He cannot be persuaded to play at anything much, mostly we are tiring ourselves out taking him out of the house every day, introducing him to other options to look at or try, once he is back home it's taps again, it's pretty relentless... I recall we had a fish tank, and he emptied that and the fish out all over the living room floor too, had the time of his life :wallbash: Anything near water he switches out and heads straight for it. Other than that it is level one of spiderman on his games machine which he plays over and over and over, refusing to go to the next level, he's played the same level 14 months now.... refuses to play any other game.. He just threw a wobbly because mum moved it 5 feet to the other side of the room, as we were decorating, I am in the middle of Mum versus son at the present DOH ! Both seem to not want to give ground (Where's the UN when you want them) ? MY game ALWAYS stays THERE, my TV always faces THIS way, the spare batteries are not there, even THEY point a certain way..... WHERE are they ? my stool faces THIS way etc, a place for everything and everything in its place.... NOT a good time for Mum to try re-arranging the furniture...

 

OK, I'm off its round two.... :star:

Edited by MelowMeldrew

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Hello

My son aged 4 is also obsessed with water.He constantly runs taps drinks pints and pints daily pours it plays with it even sits in my daughters doll's bath and pours water overhimself!!!

at his nursery we had to put a plan of action because of it.he would be allowed 10 mins maximum in the morning and 10 minutes in the afternoon.

it seems to work but as they are constantly busy with him there he has a lot of distractions.

At home is a different story,I too am thinking of getting locks for my taps.

I have the red hands up at the taps,he takes no notice.

If you get any luck with locks,could you let me know

Good luck

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Just a thought not a solution, when I was little I had an obsession with water as well. It calmed me down when I was stressed or anxious. I would be transfixed on the water running from the tap and it relaxed me totally. I could sit and watch a running tap for hours. I also used to spin coins and watch a dial go round on the electric meter which also relaxed me. If your son is doing this to relax himself, maybe try giving him a coin to spin or something. Something else, a rain stick. You hold it up and watch the beads run down, it sounds like rain, once it has ran out you tip it up the other way and it does it again. Another thing that helped me relax was an abacus. Just some things there that helped me. You could always try getting the book, the out of sync child. There is some great ideas in there to help with sensory issues.

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Hi MM - No first hand advice or anything, but if this is such an important obsession for him I guess that finding a way to 'manage' it is going to be the most important step in overcoming it as extinctiion is unlikely to work :(

 

I wonder if there's anything you could rig up using aquarium gear (pumps etc) to provide a 'tap' and collection system for recycling the same water. This would obviously be smaller scale than a real 15mmm tap, but could be enough to get him working with you rather than against you to control the obssession (from the conversations about his game/argument with mum it does seem like he has the ability to verbalise his feelings and grasp some of the underlying concepts you're trying to establish). However you proceed, it seems unlikely you'll break the pattern without him being an active and willing participant in redirecting the compulsion, and if there is stress/anxiety involved as a 'trigger' then trying to do so could actually lead to an escalation.

Clear tubing, so he can see the water at 'work' (and anticipate it's course, predict things like when the tank will be full and ready to 'flush' again) could provide a visual alternative for the aural/tactile feedback he's (presumably) currently getting. In time, maybe, you could transfer those elements into similar apparatus carrying less problematic materials ('ball clocks', sand-timers - that kind of thing).

 

A quick word on medication... I've worked with some autistic people whose medication actually promoted water seeking, as it left them very dry and thirsty, and this became an obsession in itself to the point that they were potentially consuming dangerous quantities of water (far more than necessary to overcome the original medication side-effects). I worked with one client who had an OCD about hand washing, and while the origins of the OCD weren't completely understood one possibility was that it arose as an 'acceptable' solution to overcome restrictions on more obvious stimulatory water play...

 

Hope that's helpful in some way, and very best in finding some compromises/solutions

 

:D

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Hi MM - No first hand advice or anything, but if this is such an important obsession for him I guess that finding a way to 'manage' it is going to be the most important step in overcoming it as extinctiion is unlikely to work :(

 

I wonder if there's anything you could rig up using aquarium gear (pumps etc) to provide a 'tap' and collection system for recycling the same water. This would obviously be smaller scale than a real 15mmm tap, but could be enough to get him working with you rather than against you to control the obssession (from the conversations about his game/argument with mum it does seem like he has the ability to verbalise his feelings and grasp some of the underlying concepts you're trying to establish). However you proceed, it seems unlikely you'll break the pattern without him being an active and willing participant in redirecting the compulsion, and if there is stress/anxiety involved as a 'trigger' then trying to do so could actually lead to an escalation.

Clear tubing, so he can see the water at 'work' (and anticipate it's course, predict things like when the tank will be full and ready to 'flush' again) could provide a visual alternative for the aural/tactile feedback he's (presumably) currently getting. In time, maybe, you could transfer those elements into similar apparatus carrying less problematic materials ('ball clocks', sand-timers - that kind of thing).

 

A quick word on medication... I've worked with some autistic people whose medication actually promoted water seeking, as it left them very dry and thirsty, and this became an obsession in itself to the point that they were potentially consuming dangerous quantities of water (far more than necessary to overcome the original medication side-effects). I worked with one client who had an OCD about hand washing, and while the origins of the OCD weren't completely understood one possibility was that it arose as an 'acceptable' solution to overcome restrictions on more obvious stimulatory water play...

 

Hope that's helpful in some way, and very best in finding some compromises/solutions

 

:D

 

We're unable to wean him away from taps at present, he destroyed the aquairum we had, which we set up as you described, he just emptied it all on the floor, then went back to the taps again to fill it up ! Its watching the 'flow from the taps and the filling of cups and pouring it away that floats his boat. My next idea is to buy a water feature to go indoors, he can fill his cup there from a water flowing from a seemingly unconnected tap. Keep him occupied working it out... :rolleyes:

 

Dunno about this though http://geekologie.com/2007/04/magic-tap-thumb.jpg

Edited by MelowMeldrew

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Hello

 

My asd son is nearly 8.5 and he is still obsessed with water.

 

Running taps, making waterfalls and creating swimming pools.

 

You are not alone.

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We have lost a ceiling and currently have a heavily water stained kitchen ceiling.

Our son is now 23 and still loves to run the taps. We have had to turn them off at the base, which is a real pain but we arejust trying to break the cycle. The constant running of the hot tap was ruining our new boiler and goodness knows what our fuel bill will be.

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We have lost a ceiling and currently have a heavily water stained kitchen ceiling.

Our son is now 23 and still loves to run the taps. We have had to turn them off at the base, which is a real pain but we arejust trying to break the cycle. The constant running of the hot tap was ruining our new boiler and goodness knows what our fuel bill will be.

 

We'll have to get together and make an appeal for funding to pay the water bills I think....

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