help please, ds keeps making himself sick

[Calally]

ds is 6, just recently diagnosed with autism. he attends a special school. during last year, he was removed of school transport due to making himself sick. was allowed back on, but had to be removed again as this kept happening. when he started back to school in sept, he was on a bus by himself with just an escort, and on the way home with a few other children. All was going fine until 2 weeks ago when ds made himself on the way home. this happened maybe once a week. then everyday for a week, and only on the way home. this week, transport decided to stop transport on return journey, and send him home in a taxi with an escort. all fine on day 1. ds was then sick on way into school everyday this week so far. and was sick in the taxi on the way home. there isnt anything wrong with ds, he doesnt have a tummy bug or anything. previously making himself sick was down to attention seeking behaviours. but he has 1 to 1 attention on the bus to school and taxi home. i really am at my wits end with this. there isnt anything i can do on transport, i dont know why hes doing it, and he cant tell me why. has anyone else had any experience of this, or suggest anything i could try? any help would be greatly appreciated.

Difficult one. Is he verbal? Is there not a chance that he has developed something as simple as travel sickness? When I was a child I only used to reach the end of our road before I felt like I was going to be sick.

Does he enjoy school? I'm only asking because if you say he used to do it for attention, then if he's not happy about going to school then this may be his way of telling you that something's wrong.

hes not totally verbal. his behaviour at school has detriorated aswell. it isnt travel sickness, hes fine in the car. and has been fine on the bus until a few weeks ago. he loves school, and his teachers, helpers. if he didnt like school, its more than likely because he doesnt want to do what he has to do, ie work, 1 to 1 stuff or things he dislikes. he was fine in the taxi the 1st few days, but thats changed now. and i really dont know why

I suppose if he's managed to make himself sick for attention before, then maybe it's just a horrible habbit that's resurfaced for no particular reason other than the fact he can do it and it gets him some attention again. I'm sure he doesn't like actually being sick, but he might like the control.

How old is he?

hes 6. being sick doesnt actually seem to bother him. and the smell doesnt bother him either. he doesnt even need to try, he does on demand. the school or transport havent come across anything like this. weve tried in the past, a reward scheme, not giving breakfast, and different things. which did help for about a week, but then he reverted back. nothings changed at home or school, which could possibly trigger this sort of behaviour.

Please don't think i'm judging, but I personally I don't think breakfast should be seen as a reward and I don't think that not giving breakfast should be seen as a punishment. What does he enjoy? Would he respond to the idea of having a treat at the end of the week? Or does he respond better to instant rewards ie at the end of each day? Obviously i'm not suggesting that he gets huge rewards daily just for not being sick, but at his age, little things such as being allowed to watch one more of his programmes that he does normally, or a fun sized chocolate bar etc.

I'm not sure it would be right to punish his behaviour yet if you don't know why he's doing it. If his behaviour has got worse at school too recently, then it's too much of a coincidence for there not to be a trigger of some sort.

When you say that he's not that verbal, can you have a conversation with him big or small? Is he able to express himself atall verbally? Or does he tend to express his feelings physically?

breakfast was given at school when he arrived previously. we had a reward chart, and if he was good, ie not being sick, he got a sweet. also then was allowed to do something fun, when he got home. this worked well for about a week, and then he reverted back to being sick. not possible too have a conversation with him. speech is single words, he doesnt have a very good understanding of whats being asked of him. im just hoping that the xmas break will do him good, and hell be fine when he goes back.

What about distraction? Does the 1 to 1 just sit there or does she talk to him or read to him on his journey? Is it a long journery? Does he like playing computer games, if so could he have a nintendo with a favourite game to play for distraction. Or a cheap portable DVD player so he can watch a programme if the 1 to 1 looks after it?

hi there. We have been through this with our son. He has an asd too. It began when we moved house, I'm not sure if your child has had a big life change recently. It got so regular and severe and he lost alot of weight. He was eventually referred to GOSH for this. We had a hard few years of this, but now aged 16 he has completely stopped. He had all the tests to physically check him and they were all fine. It just seemed to be something he was able to do. We had dietary supplements over the years to help with weight gain. My thoughts are that for him, it was a very sensory thing - a good feeling. It was something he had control over and something you can not ignore. There did seem to be certain triggers, like eating certain food like yoghurt. He also did it at certain times, like when alone in his bedroom or when strapped into a bus seat. We found not making a big fuss about it helped, just cleaning him up without comment and keeping a diary about when it happened and what had happened before and after.

Would agree with the no fuss thing...hard I know. I knew mum with NT twins who would BOTH do it!!! She was amazing though, after getting them checked out by the GP she just cleaned them up with a minimum of fuss, kept spare clothes and bags/buckets etc handy. Towels at night by bed. They stopped.

Just clean him up and try to carry on as if nothings happened.

As long as he is not ill you arent hurting him by doing so.

Hope it stops as soon as it started!

Yeah school and escorts are very good at making little fuss. I try not to, but feel I have to say something when im getting him off bus and he knows he's been naughty. The sensory issue is something I hadn't thought of, but would sort of make sense, he needs something to stimulate his mouth constantly for sensory issues. Yeah we have distraction items. Photo book, magazines, toy catalogues. The escorts do sit with him n talk to him. Journey is about 15 mins, so not too long. School are gonna give him breakfast when he arrives and not give him any kind of dairy products at lunch n see If that helps.