help me please?????

[CherryMonster]

dd1 is nearly 7 and has aspergers. recently she has become destructive. i have had to start locking the living room at night or she will raid the kitchen to "bake" which basically involves ingredients and lots of mess but no actual cooking thankfully. she also gets into the bathroom and destroys all the toiletries. can anyone tell me why or help me figure out how to stop her please? she was up at 5am this morning smearing sudocrem onto teddies.

DS does a toiletry thing too. Toothpaste squeezed out into little curly piles or smeared over the window, bottles of shampoo are slowly poured down the plughole, perfume sprayed on the shampoo watching it come out. Has a masive water thing too with cups and bottles etc. Its been like this for 3 years and not a lot I can do about it other than keep it all out of reach! When he was tiny he would charge accross room in seconds and grab the sudocrem and be covered head to foot and furniture by the time I turned round.

Its a sensory issue we think. he calls it science experiments and will mix anything in cups or bottles so we have to be very careful what we leave around. Last week it was blackcurrant squash and mouthwash! He will mix them and watch how fast they pour out or how they feel.

He loves baking and its a good sensory thing so we book bake days here. One to eat and home made playdough to squish! It kept him out of the cupboards for that as he knows he loses his bake day if he has used all the ingredients but thats the only one I have mastered so far!

Feel for you cherry, both Dd1 and Dd3 have been cupboard raiders over the years. Fortunately they were much younger than your Dd so it was easier to keep things out of reach.

No advice sorry other than to keep on with the locks.

I would agree with coff, it is a sensory thing. DS3 did a similar thing for a long time, we got him some of those horrid cheap squidgy balls/caterpillars like these these and these, we also got him some soft teddy bear fleece blankets which have worked wonders.

basically i am at the end of my tether. i can only cope with so much by myself, between her issues, and ds2's issues, voluntary work, ds1 and dd2, being on my own and getting no help at all from their dad, i just dont know what to do anymore

Oh dear - I remember those great Jackson Pollock creations all over the bathroom with any bottles of toileteries he could find.

Then he moved on to wet tissue sculptures

Yes you do know what to do Cherry x You have already started by locking the living room door as a temp measure :)

Start at the top of house and work down. What you deem to be dangerous get rid or lock up in your bedroom. We got a tall boy in ours and anything we dont want ds to have goes in there and we have a yale lock on our door for the daytime so he cant get in there. Meds, pills, razors, cleaning stuff etc doesnt look odd as its in a bedroom unit. Funnily enough he doesnt look to go in our room anyways. Out of sight out of mind. I keep the bare minimum in the bathroom ie soap for hands and one tube toothpaste high in cupboard. He had a blitz last week as DH had left his bits in the bathroom getting ready to go out so he did a wild hair do!

Knives are another pain as he thinks they can be used as saws like DH for woodwork so we now bought a set with a combo lock on it and thats up high.

All I can say is destress yourself as much as possible. Give yourself less to watch out for xx

Then you may only have to pull your hair out half a day instead of a whole one

ok, i cant put things in my bedroom as i am in the box room and there is no space. am going to move all the toiletries out of the bathroom later and put them in my brothers bedroom until i can sort it out. knives are not an issue as the kitchen can only be accessed through the living room

Yes, it's a total pain. Every night the bathroom gets decorated by DS in some unusual fashion - smears of toothpaste, bits of wet toilet tissue over the wall.

DD (supposedly NT, but with aspergers traits) also does it - in the kitchen, mixing up potions with my food.

DS has also started weeing on his bedroom floor (just to wind up DP)