I don't know what's going on with Gavin. He just doesn't let up. He doesn't seem to be able to listen. He has really lost the ability to retain things. We have to constantly be on him about everything. I feel bad because it feels like we need to cut him some slack but I don't know that we should. For example: Tonight Gavin wanted a cookie my mom had brought over. We told him after dinner. He ate dinner and wanted the cookie. We said wait a minute and we'll get it for you. He then went into the kitchen and took what he wanted. When we stopped him he said he thought we told him to. We were very clear in our instructions to wait and we would…

Elliott Richard had his first day of camp today. He had a blast and can't wait to go back. It's kind of bitter sweet because he's just growing up to fast. But I'm glad he had fun and wants to go back. He deserves to have a childhood. LT

Elliott Richard is off to his first day of day camp. He so desperately needs to get around kids his age. He tries so hard to engage with Gavin and his efforts are fruitless. I hope he has fun and wants to go back.

Today has been a difficult day. Gavin is really wearing me down. My patience is running dry. He is not listening to anything we tell him. He is become very disrespectful to Lizze. The PICA issue are getting more and disturbing. We have to watch his every move it seems.  We are trying to foster independence but right now that doesn't seem to be possible. We can't trust him or what he tells us. We randomly ask him this question: "have you eaten anything you weren't supposed to?". He will say "no" but we can tell by the way he says "no" whether or no he is lying. Then the challenge becomes figuring out what it is that he ate.  Every time we figure out what it is he ate…

Autism is challenging enough as it is. However, throwing in comorbidites is the really tough part because you rarely know what is what. We chase one symptom only to make another worse. In Gavin's case we never really know what his capabilities are because he is so behaviorally limited by all the other disorders. LT

Hygiene. As if Autism wasn't challenging enough. How do you deal with hygiene issues? Gavin is having issues with bathroom hygiene, like cleaning himself up after going potty. Sometimes he cleans himself up and sometimes he doesn't. He won't talk about it and won't left us help. The other big problem and it's a big problem is that he sometimes doesn't want to pee in the potty so he just pee's his pants. He doesn't change them afterwards. He just goes on like nothing happened. We just realized this the other day. He says that "sometimes he just doesn't want to get up to go potty". He gets engrossed in what he's doing and won't walk away. What are we supposed to do with that? I guess we at least…

We are struggling with PICA again with Gavin. Not sure if we are struggling again or we have just become aware of it again. Are there ways of discouraging it? Should we down play it? Or should we crack the whip so to speak? LT

I spoke a while back about Gavin eating tooth paste. We adjusted where it was kept and watched him closer. Well apparently he is now eating the tooth paste that is crusted over in the sink. He is also cleaning out the drain and eating that also. We try to keep the sink clean but don't always stay on top of it. The other problem is that he will to this when he asks to go to the bathroom. He apparently doesn't always need to go. He's looking for tooth paste. We are going to have to supervise is use of the bathroom period. I just never ends........ LT