How long does the xmas effect last?

[luckylady74]

sorry i know this is similar to another thread, but i'm starting to panic. ds1(as) is in yr1 and it's his first xmas there. Behaviour that i've not seen in months is returning - constant screaming,hurting himself, melt down as soon as he gets home and when he wakes up, but worst of all are the unspeakable things with poo - as i just said to dh - when he starts ingesting his own excrement is the time when i want to run for the hills!
when will this stop? will it last through the holidays? - i'm starting to dread them.
he told me he'd been screaming at school today too. any positive experiences or solidarity in negative experiences would be helpful. thanks

Hiya

, we've ahd the Christmas effect too- and its crap isn't it?

It will last until things become stable at elast, so until Christmas is over at elast.... how you manage it at home after school ends is key I guess, with an NT child (did you see The Times today? excellent article on this and ASD and this effect) we have to embrace Christmas as much as possible- for ds3 thats OK as to be frank I dont think he gets much of it, but ds1 has beeen on mega kick off. If we just ahd DS1 I think I'd skip the main Christmassy bits and maybe have a nice lunch after he'd gone to bed that day or whatever.

Have you tried things like a festive version of the visual timetables eprhaps? Depending on how severe they are that couod help?

Sometimes kids do adjust spontaneoulsy- fore xample with holidays we've always known that by day 3 ds1 will suddently coope and we can write off the bad few days and start to have a break.

We have this too and I agree with peachy that how you manage it at home is key to how bad it gets and how long it lasts.

That said i find things don't get back to normal until the second week at school after the holidays.

{{{hugs}}} and good luck

thanks for your replies [my first mumsnet hugs!] - i have taken your advice and have timetabled the holidays! it felt like a long dark (literally) few weeks were coming up, but at least i've now got a plan to cling to - i do think i feel torn because my nt twins are just getting the magic at nearly 3 and i was getting a bit excited too and then got brought swiftly down to earth.
thanks again