Primary school Auties: into 2020! - thread 4

[LightTripper]

This is the continuation of the thread for parents and carers of autistic children in Early Years and KS1. Most of us are parents of children in Reception or Year 1, but all welcome!

Here are the links to the previous threads:

Thread 1: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3080753-DS-with-ASD-starting-school-Sept-2018-I-am-feeling-overwhelmed

Thread 2: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3451020-Reception-auties-2018-19-thread-2

Thread 3: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3628263-Auties-transition-to-Year-1-thread-3

That's brilliant open! Dh had a 4.30am start this morning! Thankfully it was my turn for a lie in today.
Good idea about having achievable goals too.

Danni if it makes you feel better yesterday ds took a piece of art (a mobile) down and put it in the tumble dryer. I was quite impressed by his creativity! We have also repaired his iPad 3 times this year, thank goodness for DLA!

Dimples so great you had such a lovely NYE. Glad you got an appointment for the hair pulling.
Ds never used to let me sing but recently he's done a u-turn and now I have to sing along to everything!

Happy new year Lottie.

We had a major anxiety day yesterday but thankfully dh was brilliant and managed to calm him right down. Not sure how he did it really! Going to attempt a park trip today.

Well done on the sleepover light! Sounds like a big success.

Liv we haven't had a smashed iPad yet i bought a £20 rubber bounce case from amazon and I don't know what the heck it's made from but its survived everything ds has thrown it at touches wood like a loon

Yesterday tea time ds decided to shit on his bedroom floor while I was getting his pyjamas and as I climbed over his stair gate on his bedroom door he picked it up and shoved it down the back of his radiator, squashed it all up the wall and down the back of his radiator, I cant begin to explain the mess and the time it took me to clean. I had to take the top grid thing off the radiator and had to use cotton buds to scrape it all out the grooves then disinfect everything, totally gross.

It was all over his carpet and he trod it all in which has happened a few times, so that's going to need vaxing again when he's gone back to school, he had it all on his face, in his hair. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

I haven't put the radiators on in his room yet have to wait until he's asleep to have them on or he would burn himself but I hope it's all out or I'm going to have a disgusting aroma circulating once it's heated up, id put a plug in in his room to mask any smell but the last time I had one of those air wicks he pulled it out the wall and sucked the juice out the end, like you do

I might buy a car air freshener and tie it to his curtain rail.

Hooray for the 7th jan is all I'm saying!

Oh Danni, you poor thing!

Light well done on the sleepover

Liv that's so good that your DH was able to calm DS down.

We have had quite a chilled day today and are planning a trip to the beach tomorrow. I really don't want to go back to work on Tuesday

Happy New Year everyone!

Oh no Danni! Hope it is a one off and that the smell doesn't linger when the heating goes on.

Sounds like a lovely New Year's Dimples

Glad the sleepover went well Light and how lovely to give the little girl staying over a positive boost.

Hope the park trip went ok Liv

Great to have a lie in until 6:50 open hope he had another good night and morning.

Hope you've had a good break Lottie

DD stayed up until 9:15 on NYE and coped really well with us having a couple of guests over. She wore her new super sparkly sequin dress my friends had sent over from Sweden for her and seemed to enjoy the occasion of it all. Made a change from her PJ's I guess

Really need to get out if the house today. Maybe a park trip or walk!

Danni, this is with the bounce case! Can't imagine what he would do to it without the case.
Sorry about the poo incident, sounds awful! Last time we had one of those was about a year ago.

Have fun at the beach dimples.

The sparkly sequin dress sounds ace littleswede.

Ds had a fantastic time in the park yesterday. He was running around bare foot for about 2 hours then spent about 30mins burying himself in the sand pit. Pure joy.
I'm really looking forward to the kids going back on the 6th so we can get back into routine again. Although not looking forward to the inevitable meltdowns. Finding the balance is hard.

Open what targets do you have in mind for ds for 2020.

Mine are more independent skills this year, for ds to dress and undress himself (he still can't - apart from taking his pants and undies off of course ) to get his coat on and off (still can't) and I was going to say shoes on and off but he wears piedros for school and I struggle to get those on and off so I'll settle for his trainers on a weekend.

Oh and behaviour and compliance but that's ongoing! i might meet that target by 2035 (I hope!)

He's learnt to mouthwash recently, and stand up in the bath and wash himself, when I squirt the body wash on his hands and direct him what to do.

small things!

Liv sounds like you had a nice day yesterday, we went for a long walk (2 hours) ds walked there and back! His legs were exhausted on the way back, he kept flopping about crashing into garden walls but me and Dh didn't carry him we refused. (Trying to get out of that habit)

Yes I 100% agree about dla being very useful for replacing!

Light glad the sleepover went well. Is the little girl also on the spectrum? Sounds like a positive experience all round.

liv glad dh managed to calm ds’ anxiety and that he had a great tome at the park. Being barefoot on the grass is supposed to be very regulating isn’t it, he’s probably onto something.

danni ugh, how awful for you. I hope there’s been no reoccurrence and that there were no horrid smells when the heating came on. My heart goes out to anyone having to deal with smearing. One of the most awful sensory issues (aside from self harm)

I’ve only just started to jot down targets. Will let you know.

dimples I hope the seaside goes well today. Enjoy your last few days off.

Little I’m glad dd enjoyed NYE. I hope you managed to get out today.

Ds spent 45 mins in the garden on NYD which was fun. Yesterday we went to see PIL and this morning we had a play date with a school friend.

Ds up around 5 today. It was nice while it lasted!

For those of you with skinny ds, where do you buy trousers to fit them?

I get ds from matalan, he is tall and skinny. Weighs a ton but still skinny.

I get the ones without the zips just pull on grey ones. He wouldn't be able to do zips, they'd just get broken.

Sorry thought you meant school trousers.

Normal trousers, we just usually buy joggers from next. Or since Dh is a bit of a chav he buys him tracksuits from jd.

The next ones have pull strings so I just tie them up if they feel a bit loose, he has been known to lose his bottoms round his ankles when we've been out before! Hard to find the right fit with him he's awkward. And don't start me on shoes!

danni which size do you buy? We don’t have a Matalan but online is an option.

He's 6-7 bottom half now which is what i sometimes find a bit loose around the waist but a 5-6 is too short in the leg.

So what I do is get the 6-7 and stick them in the dryer few times to shrink them if they are too big.

6-7 fits him on the top half though sometimes he needs a 7-8 depending where it's from. X

I love matalan for pyjamas for ds. We got him some marvel ones for Xmas they are lovely and wash and dry so well.

Just noticed ds has got 2 new teeth behind his 2 front bottom teeth, they are just cutting they are spiky like when they poke through, 2 of them right behind 2 front bottom teeth. he hasn't lost any teeth yet?

I accused him of being a hypochondriac on here the other day when he said his tooth hurt!

No wonder it was probably cutting the gum.

Eww danni poor you!! Have you tried the Magic Flip method? This was how DD learned, though now she can put the hood on her head and then put her arms in. She’s even sort of getting the hang of a zip though I think we bought her a coat with a crappy zip so it quite often ends up misaligned and she can’t get out of it …. Hey ho! preschoolinspirations.com/3-simple-ways-children-put-coats/
I hope his teeth stop giving him grief soon too!

Sorry the starts are getting earlier again open. In relation to whether DD’s friend is autistic don’t know if she is. I think she might be but she’s not diagnosed. Her Dad has quite a lot of traits (I would say … and I like him a lot but clearly social situations are not his favourite and he has some – erm – quite intense interests!) and she was a very late talker and has a lot of sensory issues with food (which has been the main sticking point with school I think – they basically haven’t accommodated at all). Her parents think she’s definitely dyslexic though it’s too early for a diagnosis, which often goes with autism doesn’t it? On the other hand she is much more social than DD and always has been since we first knew her (when they both started nursery at around 2.5 and she was pretty much non-verbal), so that’s not very autistic. But I don’t know if that amount of sociability would be enough to rule out autism or not? They’ve apparently asked their paediatrician who says she’s definitely not but I don’t know how much faith I put in paediatrician’s opinions on whether girls are autistic. Still, I think her parents are supporting her in a good way so hopefully she’ll manage OK regardless. And the school she was at seems very rigid and non-accommodating, so I’m not sure a diagnosis would have helped much there.

We have problems with trousers too - DD is another string bean so it's really hard to get them long enough but that don't fall down. I end up having to take most things in.

Danni did your DS used to get unwell when teething as a baby? DD did and when she got her first big tooth just before Christmas it coincided with her having a 39.2 degree temperature and quite unwell. Your DS was ill too recently? It's a theory I have about teething and I'm hoping it won't happen with every big tooth! DD lost her first one in October and the one next to it is wobbly too!

DD is another lean child who can only wear leggings from Next or tights and dresses. Jog bottoms and trousers all fall down. Dungarees ok but fiddly to get off with all the frequent toilet trips!

DH keeps suggesting braces for trousers but I can't see DD putting up with them

I googled it and he's got what they call shark teeth! Adult teeth before he's lost the baby teeth. Looks funny and really cute but I swear they have only come in since last night because I brushed his teeth last night and they most definitely were not there, he brushed them this morning (that's what we do he does morning supervised then I do them at bed just to get him used to doing his own but still getting a through brush by me once a day)

From what I've read his baby teeth will fall out soon then those adult ones he's got will move forwards into the gaps, doesn't seem 5 minutes ago when he was 9 months old cutting his first tooth!

He hasn't got any 6 yr molars yet his dentist did say in May that they will come through anytime.

Little he used to get really red burning cheeks when teething and teething pooh as I called it, gross. But not really ill as such, he was such a miserable baby anyway so hard to know! He had really bad reflux until he was 2 so I can't say I blame him. He used to have to have all medications mixed in his bottle.

Teeth are a real source of stress in this household. DS goes into meltdowns at the dentists and is v intolerant of me brushing his teeth. I manage about 3 times a week.
He is terrible at brushing his teeth - quite happy to do it but only a handful get brushed. I'm surprised that at 6.5 he hasn't lost any teeth yet. We are going to the dentists at the end of the month.

DS is v slight too but as he is v short (still below 0.4 centile, wearing age 4 clothing) it not as hard for us to get clothes to fit but I try to buy skinny fit with adjustable waistbands.