To give up testing Ds.

[Kb2942]

He's 10 and autistic. Not had a test for a while but inevitable he'll either catch a cold or covid or another virus soon.

Tests are traumatic for him. He had to be tested twice last year and it was awful. Both tests were negative btw. Felt we had no option at the time to do so. Now it's a little easier. If the test of us are negative and symptomless we can carry on as usual with work/school. Thankfully he's not had to be tested since last December as hasn't been ill.

So if Ds got ill, he'd just have to have 10 days off - not ideal missing school but thankfully he doesn't get ill often. If the rest of us get tested and negative Dp can still go work and dd school?! I'm not working currently so I am able to be home with him.

Me and dp are both double jabbed!

I read on here you can buy saliva tests- much less traumatic!

We are going to get some of those even though quite expensive

www.euroffice.co.uk/product/panodyne-sars-cov-2-antigen-saliva-test-kit/eo0gv1

Here’s the link

I have googled saliva tests but nothing legit seems to come up? Is it a thing now? It will be a real life saver if it is!

Thank you btw!

Yes! I’ve read up on it a lot as I never want to pin my son down again whilst Shoving something up his nose!

So I’m future I’ll do one of these and tell school is was a pcr!

My son's autistic and in a saliva trial area. He found the saliva tests traumatic. You have to create and spit out a few mls of saliva first thing on waking. It's thick, gummy saliva with lots of bubbles, and a huge sensory difficult for DS. We've gone back to nose only swabs and a big treat after. But it might be worth a try.

It is different for us as he's in secondary, so twice weekly testing has been the norm for many months now. We do the same as you, test ourselves too as back up, but since he is much more exposed to infections it's not much of a backstop. By the time we catch it from him and get infected enough to test positive by LFT, he could be many days in. And few or no symptom does seem common in the children I know.

You can only do what you can do at the end of the day, but it is something we have chosen to keep working on with DS.

@OnceuponaRainbow18 fab, thanks. Would be great if it was more widely used!

@MissCreeAnt thank you! It's so horrible for them isn't it and us as parents! He is off to secondary next year. God knows what things will be like then with routine testing at schools... 😒

Yes no one's made it up yet for next year yet! I wouldn't worry about it though, personally I think it helped DS process things but no one is going to force him.