Reception auties 2018/19 - thread 2

[openupmyeagereyes]

Thanks to LightTripper for the thread title. This is the continuation of the thread for parents and carers of dc with autism in their reception year at school. Please join us if you can or, if you have dc due to start reception in 2019, feel free to drop by and ask us questions.

Thread 1

I know I'm being dramatic but I keep thinking if anything happened to him in his sleep.....

I said to dh shall I just deal with his wakings, which I know is ridiculous.

I'll just try it and sleep in his room to keep an eye the first night, lol.

danni I completely understand how you feel. I was the same and it was the reason we only gave it very sparingly for the first few months.

That’s interesting because it seems you don’t have the slow release version which is a tablet (Circadin, also 2mg). It should definitely help get him to sleep at a reasonable time so hopefully it will give you your evening back but you will have to see if it helps with the subsequent waking. I’ve got everything crossed for you.

Our GP said she hadn’t seen the liquid used for children. Why does this have to vary so much by county? What’s the brand name of the one you have?

I just looked at the bottle open and it's called ASCOMEL

& it's strawberry flavour which is a bonus x

We got the Omega 3 you recommended today - thanks Amazon! It’s strange, it has almost no flavour at all and seems more water than oil.

Wow so many posts since I last checked in!

Danni I speak to ds's teacher probably once a week briefly and once/twice a term more in depth. We've had a meeting with the SENCO once a term but I email her a lot. Thanks for the vitamin recommendation. I'm rubbish at getting my kids to take them so will try anything!

I'm glad you find this helpful jeb. The SN boards and this thread particularly has been a real lifeline for me too.

Hopesdaddy well done on the school place. My ds sounds quite similar to yours. Fine on gross and fine motor skills but very behind with his language. My ds is also very sensory seeking which causes him some challenges.

Glad you had a good weekend light, well deserved!

Did you all see the article from the thread in SN chat? I thought it was a brilliant way of explaining the spectrum/spiky profile. theaspergian.com/2019/05/04/its-a-spectrum-doesnt-mean-what-you-think/

Open glad the blanket arrived. We mainly use it on ds during the day. I have read that they are not supposed to be used while sleeping but not sure what the reasoning is for that. Ds is actually using his a bit more at the moment, mainly when he's on the sofa watching tv.

We were having a fairly good week until today. Nothing would get ds out of the playground at school so I had to phone dh to come and help. You know ds is distracted when even an iPad won't work!

That's a v helpful explanation Liv

Good luck with sleep tonight Danni

We had managed a week at school without any accidents ..until today. But that it much better than the last couple of weeks.

I received a letter today stating that DS has failed visual screening test. He already has problems with his hearing. I do wonder though, how well he engaged with the test. Off to the opticians to check it out.

I hope he’s sound asleep danni 🤞

I gave ds melatonin at 6.20pm, (will maybe do it a little later in future, was just eager to try it tonight) got him ready for bed took him up and read his stories and turned the light out at 7pm, left and went downstairs, that's what I'm doing now not sitting with him on the floor in the dark like I have for the past 5 years, I want him to learn to settle himself, he's never been able to do this. So I plan to just go down and listen for him rather than be beside him.

Id not even got half way down and he got straight out of bed stood on the end of his bed pulled his big Thomas the tank canvas pic of his wall and chucked it over the bannister down the stairs, like you do... I've told him its going to the charity shop tomorrow

Laid him back down told him if he gets out of bed I'll turn the bedtime music off, made sure I repeated this several times and left his room, he carried on chatting about all sorts to himself until 7.30 but he didn't get out of bed again for once he listened to me then suddenly all went quiet............

Then I heard snoring.

Will see how it goes. He doesn't snore anymore since his adenoids were removed last year, but is snoring away now, but like my mum just said he's probably in a really deep sleep.

nine o clock and I'm in bed,

happy days

danni that’s awesome, I’m so happy for you. I hope he sleeps ‘til a decent time.

Brilliant danni!

That's great, Danni

Amazing Danni, I really hope he had a good night!

danni how was the rest of the night and last night?

A mixed day here yesterday, mostly good. We went to the birthday party of my friend’s youngest. It was at their house with her extended family and a couple of close friends. Ds coped really well even though he didn’t know lots of them, he even sang happy birthday which he hitherto has hated for some reason. All good. Then later on he had to be carried out of the supermarket because he was having a tantrum about a toy he wanted.

I don’t think we handled it particularly well, I managed a previous incident much better when I was by myself and he calmed down after a while and put the toy back. Anyway, he has been told he won’t be going back there for a while.

Hi open

first night ds slept 7.40pm until 7.10am solid 11 and a half hours sleep which he hasn't done for a very long time. I was really shocked.

Last night he slept from 8.15pm but woke at 4am for the day.

It's the early mornings they kill me off.

If when we got up he could sit quietly on the iPad or watch tv or whatever then it wouldn't be so bad, but the minute his eyes ping open so does his gob!!

4am is still the middle of the night in my book!

Not sure what the answer is. X

You really do regard 6am as a long lie in don't you in these circumstances.

Yesterday morning I felt like I'd slept for a week!!

I've got a blind in his bedroom and black out curtains, but it still lets a bit of light in, when I go in to him at 4 or whatever ridiculous time his room isn't pitch black, so I'm investigating, will have to check amazon later.

I may just have to masking tape around the edges of his windows to stop the pesky light haha!

We also have trees near to his window and the birds love to sing at the crack of dawn, not sure what the solution to that is unless amazon also sell chainsaws

danni I honestly don’t think the light makes a difference with my ds, he’s up at the same times summer and winter alike. Birds may be a different story but as you say, not much can be done about them. We have the same as we’re in a village and surrounded by lots of trees. We’ve had 4:55 the last 3 mornings.

Blimey, you must have thought you’d hit the jackpot yesterday morning. Still, 4am is better than 3 hours awake during the night? Yes, 6am is a (rare) long lie in here. The times ds does sleep later we’re usually awake anyway, such is the conditioning.

Reminds me of when ds was about 3.5 months old and he started cranial osteopathy following a tongue tie division (was recommended by the lactation consultant as she said they could have tense jaws and necks). After the first session he slept his longest stretch - 9 hours - and I thought yessss as I’d read it could help sleeping. Sadly it was never repeated and shortly after the 4-month-turned-permanent sleep regression started

We’ve had a half an hour tantrum here about the iPad which started as soon as the television was switched off. Sigh.

I’ve just read about this in the news: cauldwell children the first of it’s kind in the UK. it sounds amazing, funded by John Cauldwell.

Wow, that does look like a great resource! I just looked it up and it's only a couple of hours from London on the train, so the courses might be doable for us...

Not a great day today. I had to wrangle ds to the floor in the playground to stop him running away. I ended up holding on to his foot while about 30 people watched. One lovely parent did offer to help and carry the things that ds had thrown all over the playground (including his shoes) but luckily dh was just round the corner and could help.

Most days I don't care what other people think but today it was all a bit much. Hope everyone else is having a better day!

Open that place does look amazing.

Sorry you had a rough pick-up liv, it’s a real trigger for him isn’t it. I hope you’ve been able to regroup and that he settled down once you got home

Ds is becoming increasingly awkward about clothes. It’s frustrating as, apart from gloves, he’s always been pretty good. Over the winter he refused to wear a hat or scarf at all, and he refused to wear his thick coat, would only wear a lightweight one. Now it’s hot he’s refusing to take off his school sweatshirt and I think he’s going to be funny about short sleeves and shorts which have never bothered him. He won’t wear a dressing gown or jumper/cardigan when he gets up in the mornings, just wears his thin pj’s - though this one is not recent. It’s all a bit frustrating.

Thanks open: having a glass of Rose now!

Clothes are always a problem for us, particularly changing seasons. Can he tell you what it is about the clothes he has a problem with?

liv he says he likes to be cold or warm respectively
He said the coat was too big. I think by that he meant heavy or bulky.

Hard to argue with that!

Poor you, Liv.

We had a difficult weekend but when I looked back I realised it was my fault. I kept saying yes to individual things but did not piece them all together, so over the weekend DS went to 3 new places involving 3 new activities: flight simulator, climbing wall and cricket play session!

I have been trying to talk to DS about the possibility of having a brother or sister (I have applied to adopt again and my sw needs to speak to DS). I thought he had understood what I was saying, but at the end of the conversation he said, 'so my brother and sister are dead'. Think that I may need to write a note to school otherwise his 1:1 is going to be very confused!