Thanks Becky.........

[Guest guest]

>

> Thanks for the info, Becky.

, I think, is more " normal DS " (if there is such a thing) than

not. But, she is compulsive about things too. She also only wants

to eat certain things, but will eat what the rest of the family is

having during meals. She has a certain seat in the car and at the

table too. She has to have everything in her room in it's spot!

She's the neatest of all 4 of my kids as far as keeping her room

just right. Nothing can be out of place. I guess the biggest thing

though is that she hums and shakes board books in front of her face

and gets lost in her own little world doing so. I hate to take her

to more Drs. (she has Grave's disease and needs blood draws often)

to look for other diagnosises when I'm not sure anything could or

would change. Thanks again for telling me about Dylan.

Hi ~

>

> His teachers never really came out and said anything. Always

just kind of plugged along day to day and dealt with " Dylan. "

>

> When Dylan was about 9 we came to this realization that he

wasn't going to " catch up " suddently to his peers with DS that were

talking, reading, writing, playing, social, etc. Dylan was

so " wired " and we needed help dealing with his behaviors &

aggressiveness. We saw a psychiatrist who diagnosed Dylan ADHD &

prescribed ritalin & clonodine. The ritalin helped, pretty much

right away. His teacher at the time was very against us medicating

him, and was pretty verbal about it. After a few months she came to

us and said that she was wrong and Dylan needed the meds, we had

done the right thing. He was concentrating more on his work and

doing much better academically that he ever did before. We went on

seeing this psychiatrist for about 1.5 years & continued the meds.

But there was always something different. Dylan is in a school for

children with special needs and there are multiple children with DS

his age & a few years ahead and behind him. He was NOTHING like

them.

> Never really had been. We blamed ourselves a bit, saying he was

an only child, that's why he wasn't social. We taught him NOT to

hug everyone, something that seemed to be typical of other DS

children - that's why he never hugged anyone. We didn't spend

enough time working on school work, we were too young when we had

him, etc. One day someone was work was talking about a child with

autism. I never knew a lot about autism & because of this situation

I looked autism up on the web. There was a checklist. I about fell

over. I cried. I was convinced it was why Dylan was " different. "

Soon after that I started searching DS/Autism & found the article

from Joan Medlen. I talked to Dylan's pediatrician who said " I've

always known Dylan was not your typical DS child " - which, I love

his pediatrician, but could have socked him one for not being honest

about me with this earlier!! I guess he thought we had enough going

on & couldn't handle it or something. Oh well.

>

> Other things that made us lean towards the ASD is his

food " pickiness " - he only eats about 6 things now. Which I am

lucky he eats because I know others on this group who's children

aren't able to eat. His sensitivity to noises, group/party

situations, very good at puzzles - he's a wiz - it's unbelieveable

(it's great to say your kid is GOOD at something!). Lack of eye

contact, need for things to be the same. Same seats in the car, at

the dinner table, everything. Dylan doesn't react to pain - hard to

guess when he's really sick. Dylan is non-verbal (had 4-5 words at

age 3, lost them). He watches kids play, from afar with his hands

over his ears. Hands over the ears a lot - almost like there is

some noise that is hurting him. He doesn't get danger!!!

>

> We got the Autism diagnosis this spring from a developmental

pediatrician at the Waisman Center in Madison, WI. It's a relief to

know it's not just us. It helps give me more " leverage " I guess you

could say to get what he needs in school. Gives me some peace - as

strange as that may sound.

>

> Dyl is still on the ritalin & now abilify. The abilify seems to

help him sleep and calm some agressiveness. The ritalin still works

(I try now and then without it and realize he still needs it) -

helps with his concentration. Although he is sometimes very

obsessive with things, writing letters, repeatedly yelling, etc. He

seems to have some paranoia about trees and darkness. I can't

really link it to the meds though.

>

> Finding this group really helped me though, hearing others

dealing with similar things I am. I had a hard time seeing the

other DS parents and kids and seeing how " normal " they were compared

to Dylan. Dylan also has type 1 diabetes (yes, shots 4+ times a

day) and alopecia (no hair - he's a cute baldy though).

>

> Good luck! Sorry I rambled on so long! Kind of got caught up

in it I guess.

>

> Becky

>

>

>

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