Hello intro | Autism PDD

Welcome Ali
I live in SOuth East USA and have a 2 years 10 month old son with ASD - your kids are so goodlooking
Welcome! I love it when parents of older children join up. Your children are beautiful.Welcome.

Welcome. I just joined recently myself and love this board. There is so much wisdom and warmth here - I just love it.

Tricia

Welcome.

Welcome! Adorable kids! WOW! what a lovely welcome, thankyou! Yes our son does have a very cheesy grin, he is a poser for the camera, lol! I look forward to getting to know you all

Btw, I love the NAS's website. So much useful information.

Welcome ,we are in Eastern Canada,Great to have you join us,you will find lots of great support here,and you can help others as well.

Linda

Hello and welcome to the board! Post often - I look forward to your insight.Hi Alison, and welcome. I have a 12 y/o son with moderate Autism (we live in Texas). Your children are both beautiful! :D

Hi to everyone here

My name is Alison (Ali) age 41, married to hubby Paul for 17 years together 20. We have Oliver (Ollie) who is age 11 with severe autism with co-morbidities of OCD and Tourettes. Also our teenage daughter Sophie, age 13 who is fast becoming 18!! She's had to grow up pretty fast, she has seen a lot and been through a lot of stressful times like us, but she's a great kid so kind and thoughtful. I had better mention the pets - Fluffy and Pebbles (cats) and the goldfish....... We live in the UK.

Ollie was diagnosed with autism just turned age 3 years. I knew from when he was nearly 1 as he had some words but lost them very quickly. We thought he was deaf, had his hearing checked out, all ok. I could'nt let the matter drop, mother's instinct, so we got a referral to a Consultant Paediatrician and after the family history (no autism) and lengthy discussions of 3 hours and observation of Ollie we were told. Our lives turned upside down as many of you here will probably identify with!

Its been a hell of a rollercoaster ride. Ollie self injures, bites his hands and hits his body. He is on Risperdal at a very low dose which seems to help with his appetite (he was a very poor eater, very restrictive diet). We went through the gluten free/casein free stuff when he was age 4 and 5 but it made no huge difference and it was so worrying as he ended up limiting his food so much he wasn't eating anything at all at one point!! So we said enough is enough!

Ollie attends a National Autistic Society school here in the UK which we had to fight the education authorities for, ended up a special needs tribunal in London and won our case. It was the most stressful time in our lives - there is enough to cope with on a daily basis, without fighting for your child! He has been at his school now for 3 years and just this week started boarding 4 nights a week, home weekends and holidays but unfortunately had a seizure at school last night (first one) so we are still in a state of shock right now and dammit that it happened in his first week!!!

We tried the enzymes stuff, Ollie received occupational therapy at his school once a week which helps a great deal with his sensory issues and we try and work on stuff at home with him too, but its not always easy!

I myself have suffered from depression since Ollie was born. Last May I achieved a lovely diagnosis of Bipolar Affective Disorder - they don't call it Bipolar II here just the BAD!! Its BP2 I have (as in the US term) but its manageable now with mood stabilisers and anti depressants - I try to keep at a fairly low dose for both.

I used to run a parent support group and named it "Hope for Autism" it was a great little group, we had a lot of fun but sadly I had to leave because of fighting for Ollie's school.

Anyway enough about me! Thanks for reading my intro, its good to be here and look forward to giving and receiving support and advice.