Moms of Autistic Children

A lot of what you're describing sounds sensory to me - hand-flapping, head-banging, and all. A lot of doctors don't understand sensory issues because it's not yet outlined in the DSM (in the next revision, I believe it will be). I'm not a sensory pusher, honest, even though it might seem that way from my comments, it's just that having gone through it with my own child, I know I didn't know anything about it and had never heard of it before, and I find so many people with kids who have sensory issues that can be worked through and can be life-changing. If you don't know about them, I recommend The Out of Sync child, or even just googling sensory processing disorder. It's really helped us tremendously to address sensory issues - his tantrums have decreased, and we're more aware of what he needs and how to help him. It also helped us to see more speech and to have him USE his words (which we knew he HAD, he just wasn't using).

My mom tells me it was pretty obvious with me beginning at around a year old. I wasn't nonverbal, but I would go days at a time without speaking until I was in like 3rd or 4th grade. I still do hand-flapping, rocking, and other forms of stimming.

It's nice to have someone else's point of view on this matter. I'm not sure if this is getting too personal or not, but I'm extremely curious as my son can't tell me what he's feeling/thinking...why do you do all the hand-flapping, rocking and stimming etc.? I'm not trying to make light or anything, I just honestly am 100% curious. My son is only 18 months and he does a lot of hand flapping and this stimming thing where he flicks his fingers over and over near his mouth...also this scratching thing.

Just curios on your perspective as to why? Does it calm you down? What are you thinking as you're doing those things? Again, if this is too personal or you're uncomfortable, please feel free to ignore this post or message me privately.

It's nice to have someone else's point of view on this matter. I'm not sure if this is getting too personal or not, but I'm extremely curious as my son can't tell me what he's feeling/thinking...why do you do all the hand-flapping, rocking and stimming etc.? I'm not trying to make light or anything, I just honestly am 100% curious. My son is only 18 months and he does a lot of hand flapping and this stimming thing where he flicks his fingers over and over near his mouth...also this scratching thing.

Just curios on your perspective as to why? Does it calm you down? What are you thinking as you're doing those things? Again, if this is too personal or you're uncomfortable, please feel free to ignore this post or message me privately.

I'm also on the autism spectrum, and with regard to stimming, different things are calming to different people, depending on whether you're hypo- or hyper- sensitive (undersensitive or oversensitive). I have an autistic friend whose vestibular system is hypo-sensitive, so he craves a lot of movement, and likes things like roller coasters and merry-go-rounds. But my vestibular system is hyper-sensitive, so I crave stillness, because I get dizzy very easily. I will walk for miles rather than take the bus, because even the motion of the bus makes me dizzy. But I like trampolines - up and down motion is very helpful for me, for some reason. But side-to-side motion, going round corners, spinning, etc, all make me dizzy. The kind of sensory stuff I do to help myself not get overwhelmed is self-massage, listening to calming music, burning aromatherapy oil, having hot bubble baths. Also, here is a good tip. Weighted blankets are very good, but also very expensive - you can achieve the same effect by simply using regular blankets, but tucking them tightly into the bed. This provides pressure, which helps improve relaxation and sleep.

Hi, Obviously I am not a mom but my son is 7.5 yrs old and is high functioning autistic. He is very stubborn and will not try many foods. Normally he eats junk. I was wondering if anyone here has any experience getting their child to: 1. Eat and 2. Eat something more than nutella.

Thanks

I was HORRIBLE with eating new foods. I ate hot dogs, fries, mac n cheese, and chicken nuggets. That was pretty much it. Oh and candy. I came around to eating healthier when I got older when I noticed I was getting super fat. Sometimes they have to realize it on their own. Or you have to present something new in a similar way to something he already likes. It's how they got me to eat sausages, "It's like a jumbo hot dog!" Then I ate it and liked it.

Thank you for sharing your experiences. It gives me some insight into what Jackson is thinking. His diet is terrible...cereal, peanut butter, french fries, yogurt, sweetened apple sauce, hot dogs. I have been able to get him to take bites with a lot of prompting!! He says he likes it but won't really eat it. It is all similar foods too. He is 9...I have hope for a more balanced diet!

Children can only eat the foods that we provide for them (at least while they are little!). If these foods aren't available, they would learn to eat other foods. As parents we can, and have the right to, control what our children eat. Children will NOT starve to death when denied junk food, but they may be stubborn enough to skip a few meals. Try lots of different healthy foods and in different recipes; you will find healthy things they like, I promise, but not if they still have the choice to have junk instead.

There are lots of parents that have had amazing progress with their autistic children when they have implemented a very strict, healthy diet. Doctor's don't always promote this because they just don't know much about nutrition. (Also, "healthy" is the key word, our current diet recommendations are not healthy for most people imo.)

It's worth looking into and trying the dietary approach imo. Worst case scenario there is no change. Of all the people that I know who tried the dietary approach, all have had success to some degree; sometimes amazing success.

I'm doing it with my child, even though she's not autistic. Yup, there is some resistance, but overall she is quite excited to be "eating like a dinosaur". It's totally my fault that I slacked as a parent and let her get used to all those sickening "foods" (they made me fat and sick too), so it is harder to make the change then if I started out healthy from the start.

I should add to help you all to understand the starving to death thing.....

Think of the most disgusting foods you can imagine, the texture is nasty, the smell is horrid, the color is awful. Now imagine that every fiber of your body is SCREAMING to not *touch* it let alone taste it.

Then, imagine like my son, that at around 16 weeks old was in soo much pain due to very severe GERD that every time he ate, he felt awful as well from his heart not functioning.

Imagine that every time you do get hungry enough to try and eat something, you get a electric shock or something else really horrid happens to you externally (to represent the GERD)

Then you begin to understand why and how some children with medical issues like my son, or Sensory Processing Disorders like Autistic children will gladly starve if not given their preferred foods, or in my son's case, given his tube feeds to sustain life.

I should add to help you all to understand the starving to death thing.....

Think of the most disgusting foods you can imagine, the texture is nasty, the smell is horrid, the color is awful. Now imagine that every fiber of your body is SCREAMING to not *touch* it let alone taste it.

Then, imagine like my son, that at around 16 weeks old was in soo much pain due to very severe GERD that every time he ate, he felt awful as well from his heart not functioning.

Imagine that every time you do get hungry enough to try and eat something, you get a electric shock or something else really horrid happens to you externally (to represent the GERD)

Then you begin to understand why and how some children with medical issues like my son, or Sensory Processing Disorders like Autistic children will gladly starve if not given their preferred foods, or in my son's case, given his tube feeds to sustain life.

This is a good post. Many autistic kids will simply not eat if what is offered is repellant to them for sensory reasons, and they will become malnourished. Another thing to add is that people on the autism spectrum have so much sensory stuff going on that it's overwhelming and as a result they may not recognise individual sensations like hunger. Or needing the loo, as another example - I used to often wet myself as a child, becuase I didn't realise I needed the toilet. I also never knew when I was hungry. My mother expected me to be responsible for preparing my own meals by the time I was 15, and I often simply forgot, because I wasn't aware of feeling hunger. I was very underweight and weak, and often fainted.

It is possible to train oneself to recognise these feelings if you are high functioning - but it's much easier as an adult, because you can then control your sensory environment to some extent.