How many of us are Autism Moms?

Going to bump this for my wife to have a look at later, she has a post-grad diploma in Autism and now supports families and schools with the development and schooling of primary aged children who have Autism

Good to see other Moms here who understand. I have a sweet, little 6 year old girl with Asperger's. She is brilliant and artistic and a kind, kind soul. Some days are more challenging than others. But like allof you, I wouldn't change her for the world. She is my one of my inspirations for getting my butt in gear and losing this weight.

I also came across this thread and wanted to express my love and gratitude for all you moms out there!
I am a speech pathologist for an organization that serves adults and kids with developmental disabilities. I have 5,500 people and am the only SLP. It is hard not being able to provide as much time, energy, effort, support, skills, etc. as I would like.
I care for every single one of my guys like they are my own child.

Please keep me as a resource if necessary. Autism is such a communication (or lack, thereof) based condition and that is my specialty.

Best of luck to all you moms with your children and your weight loss journey. You CAN do it!

Kerri

I have a 3 year old son with autism. It's so frustrating and when you have a child with special needs you really learn to put yourself last. I have 3 children--7 year old son and 3 year old boy/girl twins and I put myself not just last but dead last--even past the family dog. The toll all the worry takes on you is the worst. I am an older mom (almost 41) and I worry about what will happen to my youngest when my husband and I are gone. I need to get back in shape and be healthy for my kids, especially my autistic son. I'm so happy to see a group of moms here who have autism and weight loss struggles in common. I accept all friend requests. I'm new and so my page is slow but once I get into the groove, I am a lot of fun and very supportive! Hugs all!

HI.

I have a 4 year old son (he just turned four on Monday actually).

He's had issues since he was a few months old. At a year old he had surgery due to his soft spots closing too soon.

He was developing normally until he was about 18 months old. He lost some of his skills, quit speaking, was not very social and had behvaiour and emotional issues, hypersensitivities to textures, temperatures and sounds.

Just recently he was evaluation for Autism. By the time we got into the assessment, some of his skills had increased. He had started making eye contact and starting using his body language to try and get his point across. Due to these two developments, he was not diagnosed with Autism. Although they stated that he definitely had a lot of traits. They want to see him again before he starts school.

3 months before his 4th birthday his language skills exploded. He is a non stop chatterbox now. He still has trouble with pronouncing words and using proper words, but he has come a long way. He is also not as clumsy as before.

I am still at a loss though. He is a very difficult child. He had emotional outbursts from very minor things, is very sensitive to stimuili, although he will sometimes run into things full force and then laugh. He has recently taken to jumping off the dining room table and jumping from piece of furniture to piece of furniture. He is also still experiencing SEVERE separation anxiety from me. I STILL cannot go anywhere in the house without telling him or he completely melts down and tries to find me. He is a very picky eater, although he will say he's hungry ALL the time. His sleep has become very disturbed lately too. He wakes up a few times a night, snores exremely loud and is very restless in his bed. He doesn't really play well with children, and he is constantly annoying his older brother. He also screams and gets mad for the smallest reasons.

There are other issues as well, but this post is very long already.

Im seeking any imput from you awesome mom's out there on how I might be able to handle him or if I should pursue trying to find out what might be causing all of this.

Please help. It is getting very frustrating and his behaviour etc is disrupting our family life.


Thanks for any advice/help.


Sorry this post is so long.

HI.

I have a 4 year old son (he just turned four on Monday actually).

He's had issues since he was a few months old. At a year old he had surgery due to his soft spots closing too soon.

He was developing normally until he was about 18 months old. He lost some of his skills, quit speaking, was not very social and had behvaiour and emotional issues, hypersensitivities to textures, temperatures and sounds.

Just recently he was evaluation for Autism. By the time we got into the assessment, some of his skills had increased. He had started making eye contact and starting using his body language to try and get his point across. Due to these two developments, he was not diagnosed with Autism. Although they stated that he definitely had a lot of traits. They want to see him again before he starts school.

3 months before his 4th birthday his language skills exploded. He is a non stop chatterbox now. He still has trouble with pronouncing words and using proper words, but he has come a long way. He is also not as clumsy as before.

I am still at a loss though. He is a very difficult child. He had emotional outbursts from very minor things, is very sensitive to stimuili, although he will sometimes run into things full force and then laugh. He has recently taken to jumping off the dining room table and jumping from piece of furniture to piece of furniture. He is also still experiencing SEVERE separation anxiety from me. I STILL cannot go anywhere in the house without telling him or he completely melts down and tries to find me. He is a very picky eater, although he will say he's hungry ALL the time. His sleep has become very disturbed lately too. He wakes up a few times a night, snores exremely loud and is very restless in his bed. He doesn't really play well with children, and he is constantly annoying his older brother. He also screams and gets mad for the smallest reasons.

There are other issues as well, but this post is very long already.

Im seeking any imput from you awesome mom's out there on how I might be able to handle him or if I should pursue trying to find out what might be causing all of this.

Please help. It is getting very frustrating and his behaviour etc is disrupting our family life.


Thanks for any advice/help.


Sorry this post is so long.

One thing I use for my sons--one autistic and one not for sleep is melatonin. I get the spray kind from Amazon. Give him 1-2 sprays 30 minutes before bath/bed. He'll sleep like a charm. My oldest has sensory issues and went to OT for them. Could your child have Sensory Processing Disorder? You can have him evaluated by a psychologist or take him to an OT for an evaluation to see if he could benefit from some Occupational Therapy. I understand how tough it is. I have been there....still am. Good luck!!!


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Have one with dyspraxia and aspergers aged 10. Hard work at times, but he's soooo loving, intelligent and funny. Wouldn't change him for the world. He's also obsessed with computer games! X

I have a 6yr old boy with autism.

My son Toby is 4 and is "Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified."

My name is Leah. I have a 3 year old son, Zarkel, who was recently diagnosed with Autism. There are great days and complicated days, but all in all the good outweights the bad, and as I'm sure you all feel, I wouldn't change anything about him for anything. He's my amazing fish that almost got away<3
Now that we've finally got all his observation and daily appointments out of the way (he attends a preschool five days a week and gets his speech therapy and ABA there), I feel less stressed and I feel as though it's okay for me to take the time to take care of myself now. You are all extremely strong women, you can do anything! Good luck!

“If I could snap my fingers and be nonautistic, I would not. Autism is part of what I am.” ― Temple Grandin

Me!! My Autistic son is almost 7.

My daughters name is also Abbi, you're the first person I've ever seen spell it like that

All of you are remarkable, and strong women -- I love reading your stories and I can tell how great of mothers you all are.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/1322-autism-support
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/763-moms-of-special-kids

HI.

I have a 4 year old son (he just turned four on Monday actually).

He's had issues since he was a few months old. At a year old he had surgery due to his soft spots closing too soon.

He was developing normally until he was about 18 months old. He lost some of his skills, quit speaking, was not very social and had behvaiour and emotional issues, hypersensitivities to textures, temperatures and sounds.

Just recently he was evaluation for Autism. By the time we got into the assessment, some of his skills had increased. He had started making eye contact and starting using his body language to try and get his point across. Due to these two developments, he was not diagnosed with Autism. Although they stated that he definitely had a lot of traits. They want to see him again before he starts school.

3 months before his 4th birthday his language skills exploded. He is a non stop chatterbox now. He still has trouble with pronouncing words and using proper words, but he has come a long way. He is also not as clumsy as before.

I am still at a loss though. He is a very difficult child. He had emotional outbursts from very minor things, is very sensitive to stimuili, although he will sometimes run into things full force and then laugh. He has recently taken to jumping off the dining room table and jumping from piece of furniture to piece of furniture. He is also still experiencing SEVERE separation anxiety from me. I STILL cannot go anywhere in the house without telling him or he completely melts down and tries to find me. He is a very picky eater, although he will say he's hungry ALL the time. His sleep has become very disturbed lately too. He wakes up a few times a night, snores exremely loud and is very restless in his bed. He doesn't really play well with children, and he is constantly annoying his older brother. He also screams and gets mad for the smallest reasons.

There are other issues as well, but this post is very long already.

Im seeking any imput from you awesome mom's out there on how I might be able to handle him or if I should pursue trying to find out what might be causing all of this.

Please help. It is getting very frustrating and his behaviour etc is disrupting our family life.


Thanks for any advice/help.


Sorry this post is so long.

There could be several issues at work here. He does sound a LOT like my 16 year old who has aspergers. The banging into things, and the daring behavior could be a sign of Sensory dysfunction, and that CAN cause behavior issues. Check out a book called "the out of sync child " http://out-of-sync-child.com/ and see if it doesn't sound like your child!

the fact that he snores *could* mean that he has sleep apnea and is chronically exhausted. a sleep study can confirm this...

you can also contact your local school system and ask them to evaluate him for problems socializing with his peers--they are obligated by law, under IDEA, to rule out a "disability" in any of about 6 areas including speech, social, cognitive, and physical disability http://nichcy.org/laws/idea If he does test as having a *disability* they are obligated to provide therapy at little or no cost

Hi I'm Dawn, My oldest son Eli (almost 4) is showing significant developmental delay in social/emotional development as well as expresive language. He goes to a developmetal preschool 4 days a week and sees a speech therapist once a week. We are set to have a sensory evaluation for possible OT and see childrens neurodevelopmental department as well but thats going to take some time. as of right now all testing and evaluations has been through our local school district and he recieves the therapy through them. So we technically dont have any diagnosis but we know something is different, and are working to help him out. So thats use in a nutshell, still hanging in limbo.

I know his issues have stressed me alot and at times I tend to turn to comfort food like ice cream to just smother feelings. I am still on the emotional rollarcoster myself of wondering whats going on and mourning that he is different and that its so hard most days. He also just plain old tires me out, and I still have another one right behind him! He is a very busy boy and its hard to be a stay at home mom with him and never get the break.

but them he does something so loving that it melts my heart and I am remined again why he was sent to me.

I could of written this about my 3 1/2 year old son. Same tests, same delays, same weekly schedule except we have speech twice a week after school and he is my youngest. I am still mourning his normalcy but am so encouraged by the progress he has made in a year.