LBI*love:
His "official" dx came from his pediatrician. The working ones are from the autism center so I don't put as much weight into the one from his pedi.
A PCP pedi is a bit out of their depth in dxing ASDs. I mean a full parental/care taker interview and some formal scales would be used to determine the dx.
After she made her dx, she referred us out the center and we have been following with them ever since. He is day potty trained (still in a diaper at night), self feeds and has the ability to self dress (a stubborn kiddo). (A larger problem stems from the fact that the time he spends with my ex-husband, he is not made to dress himself and has run of the roost).
I know a number of families where a child with AS, HFA or PDD-Nos spends time in two homes with very different expectations. They nearly always catch on and behave pretty much as expected of the home in which they are.
His conversations with adults are 90% true volleys. (There are some times where he would love to tell you about a certain toy all day if you let him).
This is great. It is a very hopeful sort of skill for the future.-
The intentional sabotage makes me feel guilty- I feel like he is constantly struggling to begin with and if a visual schedule is the fix, then yay. We don;t enable the behavior, rather talk him through it. We have yet to change plans just to oblige him.
Giving your son the skills he needs to thrive in preschool and beyond shouldn't make you feel badly. Sometimes growth means getting him outside of his comfort zone as well as yours. One thing of which to be mindful, as a single parent, is that there's always a risk of competition for who the child likes best. Try not to go there because it's only by stressing him that he'll grow.
If you're like most moms, you're probably doing a lot of smoothing things without realizing. I thought I was pretty good at not babying my son until DS's psych went through the typical day at our house and pointed out about 50 incidents where I was accommodating DS even though I swore I wasn't. I remember this ridiculous debate we had because I never ran out of stuff like waffles or favorite Hanna sweaties. I had to learn deliberate sabotage myself because I was so organized. The end was DS learned to eat pancakes, toast and ceral for breakfast and wear khakis and jeans.
Completely away from what we were discussing, I brought some odd "spacing out" activity to his Autism Dr's attention (with video) and she said they were absence seizures.
He'd need an EEG to document absence seizures. They are pretty common, but you'll want proof.
I feel like they are increasing in quantity. He had an episode tonight at the dinner table that really concerned me. He just didn't seem himself and then began eye fluttering, a bit of eye rolling and what looked to be his normal stimming. He had wet his pants but I'm not quite sure when, however, he hasn't had an accident in some time so I am wondering if he lost bladder control during this episode.
That must have been scary for you. You may need a referal to a neurologist as well. Seizures need expert care. certain kinds, left untreated, can lead to brain damage and more seizure activity.
He doesn't have another appt with the autism clinic until March 27th. Should I be considering trying to move it up?
I would definately touch base with the clinic about the event tonight. They may want to refer him or bring him in sooner.
He does a lot of shuffling between his father's house and mine and I can't help but think that the stress of the constant change and inconsistencies between homes (father refuses to believe there is anything wrong with DC) has something to do with the increase in seizure activity.
Thoughts?
I've never heard anyone say that their child's seizures ramped up with stress related to having two parental homes but there are some scholarly articles that do note an uptick under stress. Not sure if it's something that has been proven.
It's really hard to co=parent with someone in denial. Especially if that person has some autistic tendencies themself and feels any plan to remediate the symptoms is an attack on them. Does his dad attend appointments with you?