4yr old ASD obsessed with YouTube/Switch

[rubixia]

My 4yr old son has recently been diagnosed with ASD, although this is not news to us (as I'm sure you'll understand!)

He's always had obsessive interests - Octonauts, dinosaurs, numberblocks. He fixates on one of these topics for a month or two - it's all he'll talk about or play with - and then suddenly he'll move on to a new topic and completely forget the last one.

At Christmas I made the mistake (maybe?) of showing him a game on the Nintendo Switch. My husband and I like video games, so we already had one. That was it - new obsession arrived. At the same time, he discovered the YouTube app on the TV and figured out how to search for videos of the game he played on the Switch (Super Mario).

Three months later we are still here and it's becoming a huge problem. All he will talk about is the Switch/Super Mario. All he wants to do is watch on TV is YouTube videos about Super Mario. I don't mind the obsessive conversation so much - it's draining, but I'll survive. My big problem is his behaviour when we say no when he asks for them, or tell him to turn them off.

We try to limit YouTube to just 30mins to 1 hour a day after school, and the Switch to 1 hour on Fridays and Saturdays, playing with a parent (not alone as he's still young so struggles with some controls). When we say that his time is up, or he realises it's not Friday or Saturday he's grumpy, cries, tantrums, refuses to do anything else, says that he doesn't like us. Everything takes twice as long - getting dressed, having breakfast, getting ready for school - because he's crying and fussing the whole time about not being able to watch YouTube.

He's also taken to not eating all of his lunch/dinner because he thinks he'll be able to play his game or watch YouTube quicker (even if it's not the right day).
He's not touched any toys in 3 months. He's either watching YouTube (for the allotted time), playing the Switch (for the allotted time), or pacing talking to us about YouTube or the Switch (the remaining 75 hours of the week).

If it's a Saturday, he will ask over and over and over again what time he's allowed to play his game, which we try to tell him but he can't tell the time so it's hard for him to understand.

I'm wondering if we just need to put a ban on YouTube and just keep the Switch limit to Fridays and Saturdays? I don't want to stop him doing things he enjoys, but I'm getting such bad behaviour and he's becoming so whiney about everything else in life that we just can't go on like this.

Anyone been through anything similar, or have any advice?

[beautifulbrothers]

Just wanted to post to let you know that we are in a very similar position, except my DS is 6.

I wish we had never introduced him to YouTube Kids... We used it as a research tool at first, then the algorithm started showing him hamster maze videos, then he started to find entirely inappropriate videos, mostly Roblox...

He is 6, which obviously makes a difference in terms of communication, but he is now only allowed YouTube Kids on the weekends. Any screen time is for 30 minutes with a minimum of a 1 hour break. He would be on them all day otherwise.

I must admit, if we could do it again, I would ban YouTube. So much of it is inappropriate and of poor quality.

We're trying to move away from using screen time as a carrot because we inevitably end up taking it off him and it leads to tantrums. I also think screen time is genuinely downtime for him. Although if he loses a game/finds it too challenging in which case this also leads to tantrums.

Sorry I've not got any advice, just here in solidarity.