Some days with our youngest with Autism are very good. She's in a good mood, she's happily playing. Her sister isn't annoying the crap out of her. She's dancing around with music. She's basically a normal 2.5 year old minus any talking.
Then there are the days where she just wakes up mad at the world. It's a whiny cry from the start of the day. The day progresses into lot's of tantrums and her tantrums aren't just stomping her feet. Her tantrums are full on throw herself on the floor, bang her head on the floor, flip her feet up and down to stomp while she's on the floor. Then there's the hitting of herself on the head. Add into it the refusing to take a nap when it's obvious that she needs one and then doesn't fall asleep to later in the day (thanks daylight savings light change for this last week of completely screwed up sleep patterns.) Followed by the refusing to eat any food. So meal times are a complete bitch. Since being on a gluten free/casein free diet we thought she was getting better when it came to her behavior.
This Saturday it was just bad. Lot's of screaming, unhappiness, tantrums and hitting her head.
She wore her weighted vest at times and that seemed to help a little. I did a lot of squeezing hugs with her to try to help and mostly she tried to squirm away from me. It was a very frustrating day. I retraced what she ate to see if anything could have set her off and I couldn't remember if there could be something that would. Since going gf/cf I also think she's started to loose weight because she's just not eating like she used to. Her best meal is breakfast, then maybe lunch and dinner is a crap shoot.
Since every Autistic child is different I can't just pick up one book of how to fix things. Which is the most frustrating. We were advised to do the Direct Floor Time Therapy for her. Which at a glance it looks like it's child led playing (without frustrating them) and challenging them (again without frustrating them). The first set of DVD's we have from DFT are let's just say dry and boring. The next DVD and book that was recommended was More than Words which is set up better but there is a lot to cover. The book is bigger than any biology book I had in high school or college and the characters in the book for demonstration look like Caillou the cartoon that whiny ass kid.
Sunday was a better day with her, less tantrums and more wearing of her vest. Which I'm still confused as to how much time she is suppose to be wearing this thing since if they are in it a lot they can become desensitized to the weight that is used to calm them down. Almost damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Then came Monday. We started out with speech therapy then immediately follow it with her parent's day out program she goes to. I never know how that is going to go. She has her good days and bad and yesterday was good. In fact very good because she even pretend played along side other kids and did art. The rest of the day she was in a good mood, she took a nap ( I think * my Dad watched her while I was at PT) but she was still in a good mood when I got her out of her crib and she danced along with Princess and the Frog and she ate dinner. A good day in our house.
I obviously wish for more good days than bad. My husband says we won't know what triggers her bad days until she moves on to something else that will set her off. A ray of hope he is, isn't he? He means well and is very supportive and also right. I know it will be a million different things that can come up on her list that will set her off. I just want that list now.
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