what do you with your other children when your SN child has appointments/therapy

[chocjunkie]

I have a lot of appointments for DD1 (Salt etc). so far a friend used to look after after DC2 but she is moving away. my other friends are all working FT and i don't have family around and I am really at a loss where to leave DC2 from January onwards. I am not financially in a position to pay for childcare eiher.

what do others do?

ds2 comes with us or dh has to have time off. Usually he just has to come with us, no other choice, it's never been an issue.

thanks ninja. should maybe ask if it is possible. I have taken DC2 to the paed but it would not really be feasable for our salt appointsments

dd3 has most of her therapy at school now, so it's not really a problem although everyone was really understanding before that, it's mainly hospital appointments.

I always take my other children. They are usually bribed with the promise of sweets if they are good .

Mostly it's fine, the only time there has been a problem is when the room is small (orthotics). The paed usually makes a point of asking where DS1 is if he's at school or with grandparents which I think is lovely.

For dd2s apps dd1 sits and plays her Nintendo ds in waiting room or has magazine and sweets. But for dd1s apps then dh has to take time off as dd2 would cause cahos in the room and I wouldn't be able to concerntrate!

If I can't arrange appointments during school time then I take my dd along with me and she sits in the waiting room with a book or homework. On occasion my dh has had to take time off work too. The paed doesn't seem to mind if she sits in on appointments and neither did the OT, but social skills group (SALT) and clinical psychologist don't allow her to sit in (unless it's a family meeting).

Unfortunately, I generally end up bringing DS3 (2yrs) along with us, which means it can get rather chaotic. I'm pretty sure last time we were there, it scared the paediatrician silly. I honestly think she had some grey hair by the time we left.