One of the biggest issues with parenting an autistic child is the effect is has on your "typical" or non-autistic children. That is something we struggle with day in and day out. Younger brothers look up to and idolize their older brother. ER is no different. While there is talk about whether or not he's on the spectrum some where he is a typical child. ER tries so hard to connect with Gavin but it just never really happens. ER has also begun picking up Gavin's violent "vocabulary". Gavin used to be obsessed with death and the killing of things. While he never did anything in real life we have plenty of hand drawn pictures. We must not be watching close enough because now ER is playing the same way.…

Today has been pretty busy. I had some running around to do and ER had camp. Gavin had a pretty good day. He started the new meds this morning. He spend most of the day in a state of confusion. I don't know if he has hit another regression phase or it was the new meds but he was defiantly out of it. Lizze got to catch up on some much needed and well deserved sleep today. ER had a great day at camp again. EJ had a relatively good day but a real rough evening. I felt exhausted but ok. We have nothing going on tomorrow so. I hope its more relaxing then today was. LT

I am extremely excited to have moved to wordpress.org. I now have a lot more freedom and control over how everything works. I have been wanting to do this for a long time now. I want to thank Stuart Duncan for all his help and patiences (I had lots of questions).  Without his help this move would not have been possible.  I'm very grateful and humbled by his actions. If you don't know who Stuart Duncan is you need to check out his blog: Stuart Duncan: Autism from a Father's Point of View. Stuart writes about his families journey through life with an autistic a child. It's a really good read and I encourage all of you to add it to your must read list. It's very rare to find…

We are changing Gavins anti-psychotic meds starting in the morning. At this point I don't hold out much hope for them to work. Honestly, I don't hold out much hope period. However, my outlook will get better as I adjust to all the changes going on around me. We have been in a power struggle with Gavin since yesterday morning over the oatmeal. All he has to do is eat a SMALL bowl in 15 minutes and then he's free to have something else. That's more then enough time to finish what we give him. Originally there was no time limit but that didn't work cause he would just sit there all day. So we added the time limit as a motivation. The problem is that he drags his feet…

What are you supposed to do when you hear the word schizophrenia used in the same sentence as your 10 year old son's name? It feels like the end of the road. As far as mental health goes can it get any worse? You might say "at least you're not dealing with a sociopath" to which I would respond "that's on the list of possibles as well. Is it really possible to have all these separate conditions? So far we have a rare form of aspergers,ocd,pica,sid,bipolar,psychosis,ptsd,adha and now schizophrenia. There are more in the list then what I named but I can't think straight now. Are we even qualified to be doing this? Hell, the professionals don't even know what to do. I honestly saw this coming, we both did.…

Lizze got back from Gavin's appointment tonight and dropped a bombshell. Dr. P thinks he has childhood schizophrenia. She has been thinking it for quiet awhile and we have talked about it before. They also talk hospitalization for medical stabilization. Once the kids are down we are going to talk more in depth but for now this is what we know. LT

I want to talk about what no one wants to talk about for just a minute. As a special needs parent in general but autism more specifically we are so focused on our kids that we often neglect ourselves. That needs to change. Who will take care of your kids if something happens to you? It's an unpleasant topic but a vitally important one. We need to take care of ourselves in order to ensure we are here for as long as possible to take care of our special needs kids. I'm very guilty of letting myself go. I was weight training 6 days a week for many years and running almost everyday. I was in amazing shape. Now after a career ending back injury and 3 kids I'm struggling.…

Lizze took ER to camp this morning and left me home with Gavin. Gavin was still sleeping when she left. When she came home he was standing "in" his window waving to her. We have told him many times that he cannot do that and why. We drop the top sash of his window down so he can still get air into his room. He's less likely to hurt himself this way. He stands on the windows sill and pulls himself up so he is leaning against the screen. He's on the second floor so it's a good drop. I"m afraid we might have to secure something over the windows now. Right now the only thing we have that works is the oatmeal. So after is giant meltdown over getting…