Re: Stimming Out of Control!!

[Guest guest]

Hi Tammy:

My now nine year old used to lay down on the floor with stuffed animals in his shirt He would hide from me and have like 5 animals in there with his chest to the ground. This started after he saw the Rugrats movie with the mother being pregnant. I forget how long that went on, but for quite awhile.

My now 7 year old is also non verbal and he used to get a blanket and want me to wrap it aorund him and place tons of stuffed animals and pillows over him and jump up and down.

We have a jump-o-lene with balls and large stuffed animals inside and a trampoline that the boys can jump off of into this ball pit and a parachute and the peanut ball.

Do you have a weighted vest, deep pressure vest, lap pad or weighted blanket. I would say your son is seeking deep pressure. This might not be it, but something to consider.

Did you just stop the Risperdal cold turkey or taper off before the new Med was introduced? My 7 year old is on Geodon and was on Risperdal before that and had side effect issues like grimacing, leg and arm movements.

This same child started two weeks ago to avoid sidewalk cracks on the street and inside stores like target and Kmart. Yesterday he started stepping over throw rugs in the house and squeezing his neck like strangling himself. Luckily we are on spring break so I can keep an eye on him.

Does your son get OT, what other sensory issues does he have? What about tags on clothing, wearing socks?

My son also is going through toileting at school and screamed last friday when we tried to get into the playground so I brought him home as he was hyperventilating.

I have a group called MakingPECSCards if you are interested in joining. We share tips on using pecs and communication tools for non verbal kids, etc.

What State are you in? We are in CA

Do you have access to a PDR and have you looked up or researched the new med your son is on? How often does he take it and have you kept a notebook of changes since new med and when did all this start? How often does he do the laying on floor, have you noticed a pattern of when he does this, after eating, using bathroom, meds?

Is it possible this may be related to why he is not urinating as much, since he is doing something to his pelvis? Have you looked at his private area to see if he has a rash or anything to explain the behavior?

Bonnie

===============sqrlklr2001 <sqrlklr2001@...> wrote:

Hello all. I've been on this board for a while but haven't posted before. I was hoping to see if anyone could provide any help or suggestions to what's going on with my son. First off, he's moderately autistic, non-verbal, and 5-1/2 yrs. old. He's on a dairy-free, peanut-free, garlic and mustard-free diet (did blood test to find out intolerances). His current behaviors are stimming constantly, eating only one food (never used to be like this), and just out of it -- in his own world. His worse stim is laying w/his stomach on the floor and pressing his penis/groin area into the floor. His legs are slightly raised off the floor and he's got a spaced out look on his face. He gets himself all sweaty and clammy. When you try to get him off the floor, he throws a fit, screams, bites

his hand, etc. As I'm writing this, he's in his room stimming on the floor with the keyboard playing music (playback feature of the keyboard). About half an hour ago I asked him to come in the bathroom so we could brush his teeth. He ignored me so I turned the keyboard off. He got up screaming but did go in the bathroom to let me brush his teeth. Then back he went into his room.This stimming has gotten so bad that I can't take him anywhere without him getting on the floor of the van and stimming. He gets really into it too, that's why it's so hard to get him out of it.Also, for the past month and a half, he's only eating one food. This from a kid who would eat lots of meat sandwiches/dishes for me. He started this strict preference with cashew/macadamia nut butter and jelly sandwiches. I figured out he just loved the nut butter. But now his love of that has ended,

after over a month, and now it's strictly cinnamon rolls from the grocery store. As a background, he was put on Risperdal in January this year. However, we stopped it because of the side effects. Plus, his biting and temper started back up again, just not as bad. His main side effect that he still currently does is pooling his saliva onto the palm of his hand and then licking it back into his mouth. What a nasty behavior, I know. The Risperdal can cause this side effect (hypersalivation). I just hope now that he's been off the med for almost 2 weeks that it will go away. Lastly, our DAN dr. now for a week has him taking Naltrexone (12.5mg twice a day) to see if it will help with his self-injurious behavior. I called his office yesterday and told them he's still biting himself when he gets upset. They said to give the medicine time to work. I've

written a ton and still probably left out more you should know so as to give you a good idea of everything but I'll stop for now. Any idea what could be causing such "regression?"(p.s.: we're toilet training him, urine only for now and he would go for us no problem to the toilet -- didn't always go -- but tried and never really got upset. now, when I say it's time to go to the bathroom and "pee", he'll come but start a meltdown when he gets to the toilet. Oh, and he doesn't pee as often as he used to. He'll urinate maybe 3 times the whole day....)Thanks for reading my story!!TammyMom to , ASD, 5.5 y.o and Haley, NT, 7 y.o.

[Guest guest]

Tammy, I'm sorry that I have no answers. Hopefully the naltraxone will help. We have never tried it for Karac. Karac is 11 and became very aggressive last August. He would bite himself and others. He is now on Geodon which has really helped him. I have found that sometimes these odd behaviors just come and go for no understandable reason. Blessings, Pat K

[Guest guest]

On 4/8/04 11:41 AM, " sqrlklr2001 " <sqrlklr2001@...> wrote:

His worse stim is

laying w/his stomach on the floor and pressing his penis/groin area

into the floor. His legs are slightly raised off the floor and he's

got a spaced out look on his face. He gets himself all sweaty and

clammy. When you try to get him off the floor, he throws a fit,

screams, bites his hand, etc. As I'm writing this, he's in his room

stimming on the floor with the keyboard playing music (playback

feature of the keyboard).

My HFA son has this same stim. It surfaced when he was about two years old. He is now 3 1/2 and still does it, sometimes more, sometimes less. His pediatrician thinks it is a form of masturbation. His OT disagrees and thinks he does it to get more proprioceptive input as well as to calm himself. I don’t know what to think. So I have no advice for you, just sympathy.

[Guest guest]

HI THERE

our now 13 year old pdd son has done the same thing over and over when he was younger. i never saw it as a sexual act. however, the pressing of the penis or groin area to the floor did cause the penis to stiffen at times. i agree with the OT that it is for input. whether it is for proprioceptive or another input, that is not really understood. however, it ended with our son one day. now i can't tell you when it ended. i forgot. probably not in the last 5 years. one thing, he did it more when he was getting sick. and i also started massaging him and laying on him for more input. hope that helps.

Hugs - Christiane, Mom to

ph (25) ADD, Bi-polar

Brady (13) PDD/NOS, ADHD, MODERATELY MENTALLY RETARDED. AGGRESSIVE & DESTRUCTIVE DISORDER,

Libby (8) ADHD, TEENAGE WANNA BE. YIKES!!!!

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