Another parent first published these one a day over a week on her own Facebook. She kindly let me post them here. I thought they were a great insight to another autism household.
Autism is autism right? Z and T should be the same right.
No, even though there are many similarities between Z and T both children have autism, both are the same age, in the same class and both eat the pastry off a sausage roll but they are both so different too.
Meet, E, she’s a mum to two T 6 and G 2 in her own words she explains What is autism and a little insight into her week and how autism effects her household.
Day 1
Today we have stock piled frozen greggs Sausage Rolls, he will only eat these for lunch but not the sausage, just the pastry! Here we have 19, they should last a week!
Day 2
Day two is about the struggle with medication! T is very particular about what he puts in his mouth, he has antibiotics twice everyday for another medical condition and its important he has it or he could get really ill. He point blank refuses to have any kind of medicine! So hiding it in his drinks is a must!
Day 3
Autism is about not being able to regulate emotions, even the slightest thing can make T upset. A certain point in any film can set off a meltdown, just any random scene where there’s no emotion. On the other hand he can watch a really sad scene and laugh hysterically at it. So be on hand with remote is a must!
Day 4
This one is about communication with a non verbal child. Every child needs their needs met, and when they can’t actually tell you it can be impossible! When T is ill, I don’t know as he doesn’t know how to show me. So a lot of parenting is just a guessing game. But he has learned how to show my his basic needs and wants by cues, if he’s hungry he’ll take me to the snack cupboard. If he needs his nappy changing, he’ll twerk his bum at me. He’s learned to take me to what he wants. But if I don’t know what he wants he gets very upset, hits everyone around him and even self harms but the look of happiness on his face when we do know what he’s trying to tell us.
Day 5
T struggles to be around other children, he’s just not interested in them so to have a little sister who can sometimes be incredibly annoying is hard for him. They don’t have much of a relationship, he doesn’t like to be near her at times but he will tolerate her. To see them sit together for dinner is huge! He will only do it if they’ve got Mcdonalds This is by far one of the hardest things for me
Day 6
Sleep! I know this is a big one for most kids on the spectrum. So it’s 9.30pm, most kids his age are tucked up in bed, fast asleep.
When it’s getting dark out, the curtains are closed, your brain knows bedtime is coming soon so it releases a hormone called melatonin to help put you to sleep. Well people with autism don’t have as much melatonin as a regular person. So in general they’re not great sleepers! T can jump, run around all day, things that would completely wear you out. But not T, he’s currently in his bedroom bouncing a football and screaming at the top of his lungs with no intention of even getting into bed yet. He has a natural hormone medication to go to sleep but even then it’s not much before 12am. His body just doenst need as much sleep as a regular person.
Day 7.
Today we did lidls, T comes up with me all the time so I thought today would be no different. How wrong was I?! I’m not sure if he’s still unwell but he’s been fine for most of the day and night. He first started by taking off his coat and shoes, so I did what I always do and started singing row row row the boat, when the crocodile got him he stumbled and head butted me. Then it got worse, he threw several packs of kitchen rolls around, kicked a bottle of wine and just screamed the place down.
Anything can start him off, any sounds, smells or even bright lights can bring on a meltdown. As soon as we got in the car he was fine.
As an autism parent you have to be prepared to just drop what your doing and leave.
Edit: next time you see a child screaming and kicking off in a shop, don’t just assume they’re spoilt brats. When T is mid meltdown there is nothing I can give him to calm him down. Not all disabilities are visible
A huge thank you to E for letting me share a week in her life, each child with autism are different, Z and T are similar in so many ways. I know just from her comments on her posts everyday she’s given some great insights from a different point of view.
I love how she finished the end of her week.
Not all disabilities are visible
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