Considering medication for my son with Autism addition

December 19, 2007

I also forgot to mention that my son is a wanderer. Many times over

the last 2-3 years he has taken off from us and found up to a 1/2 mile

away or something like that. The last time he did this was a a couple

months ago at our relatives in an area he does not know. In the dark

around 9 pm, he took off as we were getting ready to leave with no

shoes or jacket into about 40 degree weather. He was found about 30

minutes later by a lady who kept him until the police arrived.

Our family was visiting my mother for a surprise birthday and flew to

NY to visit. The flight that was paid for by my brothers was late at

night (left the airport at 11:30 pm, 3 hour layover at about 3-6 am in

JFK, etc. with a 3 yr. old and 6 yr. old with autism, imagine the joy

of this) and my wife and I were so exhausted (I did not sleep for over

24 hours) that we slept during the afternoon before seeing my mother.

While the kids were napping in the bed next to us in the hotel, they

woke up and opened the hotel door, spending the next hour or so

running down the halls, and out in the parking lot. The hotel receptionist

called the police who I saw banging on doors to figure out whose kids

they were. The cop was not very nice to us and threatened to have us

go to jail for abandoning our children. After a little explaining of

my son's autism and our fatigue, he was a little nicer, but what a

nightmare that was.

This does not happen often but when it does it is such a distress to

us (we don't know if he will be abducted, hit by a car, or lost and

die from exposure) We tried an arm bracelet with info, but he took

that off. We are considering a tracking device. Some say they have a

300 ft. range, which is useless because he can be past that in no

time. I hear GPS can work but it is expensive. Any recommendations on

this behavior modification of not running away? We deadbolt the door

every night and when we do not want him out of the house, but it seems

just a matter of time before he grabs our keys and figures out how to

open the door.

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