Double Rainbow

Last weekend, we went to the Geronimo Festival at Tatton Park. We pre-booked the tickets, getting them at the very low super-early-bird price ... and typically it was the worst day for weather. It didn't rain, but nor did the forecast sun break through the heavy grey clouds. Still, it was good fun. Would have been better if our names had been on the Carer Access list as promised; and if the BB car parking had been on hard-standing as described on the access form. But these are small annoyances (though the latter would have been a greater annoyance if it rained!). We went early and fortunately didn't have to queue too much for the activities that our son could enjoy - bouncy castles, the practice cargo net by the monkey climb, the donkey rides. It seemed quite a popular event for families with disabled children, and so much more could have been provided to accommodate them - two cycling arenas, but no sign of any bikes for disabled children; a chill-out zone for under-thre...

Take one warehouse, and fill it from wall to wall with trampolines - and you get Jump Nation in Manchester. It's huuuuuuuuuge. And for a child who likes (1) running and (2) bouncing, it's perfect. But like many parents of disabled children, I was very wary of taking Andrew to such a venue - whilst the general public can be forgiving of children the first time they get in their way, by the sixth time their patience is wearing thin. Which is why I was delighted to find out in March via another blog that Jump Nation were holding a special event just for autistic children (and their siblings) (and any parents with enough energy to join in). The session was great - children running amok from one jump-bed to the next, but annoying nobody because everybody's children were doing the same thing. I even heard a few meltdowns that received very little attention from others. Since then the sessions have been held monthly, 9am on a Saturday morning - the next is on 13th June. (...

Toileting issues Like many autistic children, our son has toileting issues.  He isn't yet toilet-trained because that relies on a successful form of communication, which we are still developing - he can tell us that he wants something to eat or a particular toy to be switched on, so telling us when he wants to 'go' will hopefully come soon. The consistency of his number twos can vary widely. He goes through bouts of constipation, which are (successfully) handled with Movicol. Equally he goes through bouts of runniness, which is the current situation. Not a problem to us, but his SEN school this week decided that was a problem - they had changed his nappy twice during one day, and decided that he has diarrhoea and therefore should stay home on Friday. Believe me, he didn't have diarrhoea - I did the day before thanks to some dodgy coleslaw! His last poop on Thursday was 6pm, his next was Friday 5pm, just in time for Mummy arriving home from work and absolving Daddy o...

Sometimes I forget that our son is sensory-seeking, and expect him to behave like an NT child. Four a.m. is one of those times. My brain doesn't work well at 4 a.m. Andrew is going through an annoying stage of waking up early, we've had a run now of 4:40am wake up calls. We don't generally have problems getting him to go to sleep, it's just staying asleep that he doesn't understand, he thinks it's time to get up and play. It's not a noise that wakes him, I was in his room from 4:10 a.m. this morning and the house is silent. It's not a toileting issue, he's still in nappies. But it is getting light earlier, so maybe he's just waking up and thinks it's morning already. Silly Mummy takes herself off to the shops, and buys a blackout blind. (Have you seen the price of those things? And don't get me started on the shoddy manufacture, I've emailed Gro about that.) Result? Instead of playing at 4:40 a.m., he's screaming. A few ho...

Who are you? I'm Mum to Andrew. Andrew was born in 2009, eleven weeks early, and weighing just 22oz (around 635g if you're younger than me!) I describe him as a "spectrum" child, not as an homage to the computer, but because he is diagnosed as being on two spectrums (spectra? Is that a word or just a Bond baddie?) Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Autism Spectrum From the reactions of medical professionals and the paucity of information on t'internet, this seems to be a rare combination here in the UK. Andrew is sensory-seeking rather than aversive; he is non-verbal but learning delays mean hasn't yet picked up sign language or symbols; and he has some hearing loss, but determining the extent is tricky when he doesn't understand the testing process. Why blog? Because Andrew can't. No, seriously, why blog? To let off steam. To share ideas. To spare my Facebook friends from my endless rambling. To pose controversial thoughts in an envi...