9 year old DS is on a seemingly never-ending waiting list for diagnosis, the consensus of opinion pointing firmly towards autism. He is increasingly aware of his otherness and is struggling socially. He receives support at school, both socially and academically, with varying degrees of success. This year is not going well. Over the last few weeks we have seen a significant increase in his anxiety, leading to trouble settling at night and obsessive compulsive behaviours. In particular he is hand washing compusively, using copious amounts of soap, and often repeating the soap-lather-rinse-dry process two or three times in a row. The whole routine can start again five minutes later, and this continues for often a couple of hours a night.
Our attempts to prevent or limit this hand washing only increase his anxiety, and make matters worse, and we are running out of ideas on how we can help him. For now we have made the decision not to try to stop him, but to just try to limit the damage he is doing to his hands as much as possible. In the meantime we are looking at counselling options and other avenues to get him some more professional help.
Does anyone have experience of this? Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Recommendations for soaps and hand creams that have worked for people with dermatitis would be fantastic. His skin is so flaky and broken now he looks like he’s wearing gloves. They must be so sore and itchy, and I am concerned that the longer he lives with this sensation, the harder it might be for him to break the habit (he exhibits many examples of sense seeking behaviour). I wondered if some soft gloves to sleep in might help. Hand washing is a little excessive through the day, but the real compulsive behaviour starts as soon as he tries to go to sleep. Has anyone tried this?
He already uses a weighted blanket, which he finds helpful, but any other ideas to help him settle would be very welcome.