State: Maine
Country: USA
Member since: Jan 11, 2007
Last logged in: Dec 01, 2008
I'm a husband to my spirited wife Shannon, father of two children, my inspirational son Wynn and great daughter Haley. Wynn is now 13 with autism. He has been the driver for my wife and I to push for better ways to track behaviors, journal his days and find what other things can help him. www.iabida.com is very helpful in the day-to-day team management for my son - and www.foggyrock.com is my community.
My son has been a fighter through all of this, which can make it difficult at times, but also helps me hope his fierce desire will protect him. My daughter is 12 and has been a tremendous help for her brother and his biggest cheerleader. Foggyrock is hopefully a big help for everyone to network better, make new friends, find new information and improve our collective understanding.
Welcome and thanks!
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stevej's Compositions
by stevej on 01.22.08 - public - 309 visits
My mind is wandering tonight as we've spent the past 3 hours past bedtime (and still counting) with intermittent aggression, crying, talking and general disregard for parental rights by my son. (ie. a few minutes downtime before we need to sleep...)
He's had a somewhat rough couple of days and the discussions my wife and I have seem to be similar to: "Do you think the frozen fruit juice we gave yesterday as the bribe for medicines caused gut problems today? How can we prevent medicine bottles from becoming offensive weapons? What is preferable - being hit in the face with a clenched fist, or being scratched with jagged fingernails? Would a slide from the upstairs to the basement sensory room enhance our ability to quickly de-escalate intense moments? (I can almost visualize the family making a fast escape to the basement in hot pursuit by a 12 year old intent on maximizing impact).
Have you ever distracted yourself at times by scouring the room for cobwebs? My personal favorite is to fantasize about an "un holey" wall painted all the same color...
Of course, the thoughts always go back to the attempted cures. Usually for me, I think of the quack solutions we've tried. Desperation will make common sense go out the window. But then again, what really is a quack solution? Maybe batman therapy really can cure autism? Why can't magenta colored glasses lower anxiety?
I'll try anything for some sleep....have a good night...
Comments(7)
Wyndie
Posted on Sat, 2 Feb 2008
I love the thought of a slide to make a quick escape to the sensory basement! It's nice when we can look at the insanity we live with and see humor in it - even if it takes some time to see it. :) I'm glad to hear you have gotten sleep since then!
TBrainsMom
Posted on Sat, 2 Feb 2008
Sleep precious sleep..have you guys had a sleep study? We found out TBRAIN was taking in secrets as his body laid knocked out. The EEG showed that he was in between sleep cycles & after a few nights of appearing to be sound asleep but brain still in an active state (too many arousals)caused sleep deprivation which triggers his seizures. No we use the radio but now I can not sleep. Try different music. he is sleeping to Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under the Bridge! Thanks I will try the Medeluca tip...thanks gang. I do not have problems but I am a natural night hawk!
stevej
Posted on Fri, 1 Feb 2008
Great suggestions and comments. Thanks everyone. We use melatonin and are a chemical free house. But..we've had some good nights since!
mdbrav
Posted on Wed, 30 Jan 2008
Hang in there. Hi am new to this site. My son Kevin used to have those long night too. Now He is using MELATONIN, a natural sleep aid, and at leat we have being able to sleep some. The other night he felt form his bed and hurt his mouth and lips, and gum. Next day I tried to find a dentist for him, but didn't have any luck none of the PD dentist in Fort Myers and Naples are willing to see him because he has to be put it to sleep. Now I have to wait 3 weeks to get an appt on FLL. Its a shame, how our kids are treat it but I keep working hard nad praying harder. MADELINE
carmel66
Posted on Tue, 22 Jan 2008
what is a quack remedy in the land of autism??? I walked into our DAN's office in August and saw an article about the wonder of secretin. My heart dropped - oh no, he's a quack that believes in that questionable "cure" (b/c of what I'd read on the internet). Four months later we have helped my son's stomach so much because of secretin use. No, he's not cured - but his stomach is healing. People may look sideways at us - but we know what we know and we know what our kids react to. Hang in there during your rough patch... (and my DH and I like to say "it's been a looong rough patch).
4muskateers
Posted on Tue, 22 Jan 2008
Hi, we used to have nights when casper could not sleep and no one in the house could, not even the dogs. But we found that once we made our home a chemical free zone, we could all sleep. We literally washed everything washable with the products from Medeluca, and what we couldn't wash we sprayed with their solumel spray. What meleuca is, is tea tree oil. bacteria, mites, fleas, viruses can not live in meleluca (aborig.) name for tea tree. It was great, sleep came easy, the house smelled good, no more bug doctors. I order on line it comes to my door, easy. we use their tooth paste, anything that goes on our skin reaaly. After a few days we felt like we were in heaven. Other parents I have shared this with have had the same results. You can see for your self by going to the web site. www.meleuca.com. You might also want to check out the book saying good-bye to allergy related autism. what it says makes a lot of sense. We spent well over 21K on Casper in 2004 only and since then I have found that I get better results and no regression since we have been Rx free and a chemical free home and car. just something to consider.
shannonj
Posted on Tue, 22 Jan 2008
Sounds a bit like my house....but my husband is much more grouchy about it than you :)
