A twelve-week individualized parent-child education program may be able to help very young children who are at risk for autism.
To date, most studies of children with autism focus on preschoolers who are 3 to 5 years old. This case study describes a nine-month-old infant who was at risk for autism. He was entered into the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM). The infant was later diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) and then recovered from his delays by the age of 24 months. The ESDM intervention focuses on teaching parents techniques to interact with their infants who are at risk for autism. The authors suggest that the ESDM parent-training intervention may be a good model for early intervention services for infants and toddlers with autism and their families.
." When NY Times reporter, Tara Parker-Pope asked Dr. Rogers how 
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Expired babyhood
Oct 7, 2007 by AnonymousAn entire week manages to zoom by in the blink of an eye. Things happen and I think, “Oh, I should put that in my blog!” Then I think, “Hmm. When was the last time I posted anything?”
We still haven’t heard anything about the EEG, but they said it could take two weeks so I’m not flipping out yet. I’m calling first thing in the morning on Friday if we haven’t been called back. These people were very lax about calling last time, so I’m not going to be giving them much leeway this time. They said one to two weeks, and I’m not waiting any longer than that.
Thomas has been doing really well in that other classroom with the higher-functioning kids! He enjoys going in there; last time he was there (Wednesday), his teacher wrote me a note that mentioned how Thomas walked into the other classroom and said, “I’m so happy to be here!” He was first there last Monday and was accompanied by the school’s child psychologist. She wrote me a lot of good notes about how he did. Thomas apparently played a lot at the messy table (which is filled with sand in that room) and talked with a little girl about their pets. Thomas was able to relate a lot of their conversation back to me after he got home and he mentioned how much he enjoyed it. He’s going to be socializing with the other class on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for about eighty minutes each time. That’s over half of his school day. His teacher said that on Monday, Thomas opted to stay with the other class for snack time as well as play/work time. I think that if he enjoys it and makes the transitions easily, we should continue with the plan. He’s doing so well that now may be the time to push a little so that we can make as much improvement as possible.
The weather here has been so strange. It is October 6th and we went swimming today! Outside! It was almost ninety degrees here and recently, every time we’ve gone over to Uncle Tom’s Pool, I’ve thought, “Well, we’d better enjoy this. Today could be the last time for the year!” I had no idea we’d be able to continue this late into the fall season. Thomas has made a lot of improvements in the water this summer, too. He loves to go underwater now. He goes underwater in the bathtub. He’ll even try to go underwater in a full sink. He jumps in the pool from the side which is something I had been trying to get him to do since May. He was jumping in off the stairs that go into the pool but he wouldn’t just jump in off the side. He started doing that in August and now he jumps in keeping his little body straight as an arrow so that he goes straight to the bottom and pushes off with his feet. It’s kind of scary for me, but he hasn’t given me a problem about wearing his life jacket and it really doesn’t seem to hinder his underwater antics. He actually (and this is what really scares me) wants me to push him under head-first so that he can touch the bottom with his hand (I think the pool’s about four feet deep)! Can you imagine what the neighbors must think if they witness this? “Good God, Marge! Look at this! That lady’s trying to drown her boy! I always knew she was the kind to crack up. Call the authorities!”
Thomas is so cute underwater. I usually put on a mask so I can watch from the bottom while he jumps in and swims around. When he goes under, his big brown eyes are wide open and he waves to me. He’s got a huge smile on his face and there are air bubbles clinging to his long, thick eyelashes. I swim below him on my back, looking up at him as he swims over me with his face in the water. I start smiling without even realizing it and it breaks the suction on my mask so that it fills with water. (Sigh) I really will miss the pool when the weather finally changes.
Next year, if Thomas continues to grow at his current clip, he may be able to stand on the bottom of the pool with his head above water. I started trying pants on the children a couple weeks ago when the weather was cooler. What a joke! Thomas’ pants from last winter barely even fit Hayley, let alone Thomas! I’m 5’4” and my mother is five feet even. How could I possibly have such statuesque children? They both grew several inches since I put their winter clothes away in April and consequently, nothing fits. I went to the store last week to buy just one pair of jeans apiece for the kids to last until I’ve decided that we’re not going to see sixty degrees again until March or April. I found a pair for Hayley – 4T – and these things are long and skinny. Has anyone else noticed how inappropriately sexy little girls’ pants are looking these days? Does Hayley really need low-rise boot-cut jeans? My mother-in-law went to a fundraiser at Bloomingdale’s where the proceeds go to help mentally retarded adults and she always buys the kids one outfit at this thing. She bought this really cute Guess? outfit for Hayley but the pants looked like they were too long and narrow. I tried them on Hayley and they fit her perfectly. A little too perfectly, actually. They’re snug around the rear end and hips and the waistband comes up below her belly button. Yikes. I kept trying to pull them up until Hayley started complaining about the colossal wedgie I had given her.
So I needed new pants for Thomas, too. I wandered around and everything in the toddler section looked too short. There was only one place to go: boys. My baby is wearing regular boys sizes! How did this happen? I remember getting a gift for Thomas that was a 6-9 month-size outfit and thinking, “Geez, this looks huge! He’ll never fit into that!” Yeah, well…it’s four years later and I’m standing around trying to figure out “slim,” “regular” and “husky.” I’ve got three sisters and no brothers! I’ve never had to shop for boy’s clothes before. For me, I decided that it was between “slim” and “regular” so I went with the regulars. Well, not for me – for Thomas. For me, it would be between “husky” and “linebacker.” But that’s not the point. He’s wearing boys’ sizes now. It’s a straight shot from here to figuring out inseams and waist measurements. Everyone tells you how fast kids grow up but you don’t really believe it until one day when you’re standing in the boys’ jeans section sobbing gently into a Wet Ones wipe while you mourn for your baby’s expired babyhood.
Carnitine fumarate
Mar 23, 2007 by AnonymousMy son has Prader-Willi Syndrome and I know this is different from autism. I am posting this entry here, though, because his response to carnitine fumarate is really amazing. His OT was really impressed with how it has improved his processing speed. It works by improving fatty acid metabolism. Fatty acid metabolism is an area of active research for autism therapy. There doesn't really seem to be a downside to giving carnitine fumarate (other than diarrhea).
The text below is lifted from www.PWSNotes.org.
So, what is L-carnitine _fumarate_? Most L-carnitine sold by supplement manufacturers is either L-carnitine hydrochloride or L-carnitine _tartrate_ (L-carnitine bound to tartrate). With L-carnitine _fumarate_ (which was developed and patented by Sigma Tau, the maker of Carnitor), the carnitine is bound to fumarate, which is a key substrate in what is called the Kreb's cycle in mitochondria for the production of energy. It is the Kreb's cycle that produces the electrons that are then passed along respiratory transport chain complexes 1-IV for the production of ATP (the basic cellular form of energy). Citrate synthase is the key enzyme involved in the first step of the Kreb's cycle and as such can be rate-limiting for the whole cycle. Fumarate, though, is the substrate for the next to last step in the Krebs cycle and its related enzyme is fumarase.
About 58% of L-carnitine fumarate is L-carnitine, with the rest being fumarate. After it is ingested, the body separates the L-carnitine from the fumarate. Although I can't say for sure at this point, what might be happening is that the L-carnitine part is going off and doing all of the good things it is known for in terms of transporting fatty acids into the mitochondria for burning for energy and whatnot, while the fumarate is entering the Kreb's cycle and boosting its output of electrons that are then transferred to the electron transport chain, resulting in an increase in the production of cellular energy in the form of ATP. If that's what is happening, it could be the extra fumarate is providing a pathway around a metabolic block, possibly in succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), given that SDH is the enzyme that catalyzes the succinate-to-fumarate reaction. If so, it could be that the impairment in respiratory chain transport is not a primary event but is instead a downstream result of reduced substrate availability in the Kreb's cycle. (Interestingly, fumarase deficiency is a very rare autosomal recessive disorder in which the metabolizing of fumarate in the Kreb's cycle is sharply reduced or completely absent and is characterized by massive secretion of fumarate in the urine, encephalopathy, hypotonia and severe developmental delays, all of which (aside from excessive fumarate secretion) are rather reminiscent of another syndrome that we are all too familiar with.)
The Pure Caps capsules contain 586 mg of L-carnitine fumarate, with 340 mg of that being L-carnitine and 246 mg being fumarate. Sulli is only getting 1/4 capsule a day, which works out to about 85 mg of L-carnitine and 60 mg of fumarate for a 16 lb (7.25 kg) baby, which is about 12 mg/kg/day of L-carnitine and 8 mg/kg/day of fumarate. That's a surprisingly small amount of L-carnitine to be providing such dramatic benefit, given that the recommended dosage range for Carnitor is 35-50 mg/kg/day, and provides further support for the hypothesis that the fumarate part could be providing a significant amount of the benefit.
I've spent some time looking into the safety of L-carnitine fumarate and fumarate. L-carnitine fumarate is a relatively new form of carnitine and there aren't many clinical studies involving its use. The studies I found all have to do with Sigma Tau's patented formula for male infertility, ProXeed (yes, among other things, carnitine helps sperm swim better :-). The daily dose of that formula contains 2 g/day of L-carnitine fumarate, 1 g/day of acetyl-l-carnitine, 4 g/day of fructose and an unspecified amount of citric acid (which is also a metabolite in the Kreb's cycle), and in clinical trials seems to have been very well tolerated aside from the usual occasional side effects of large doses of carnitine (i.e., transient nausea and digestive upset, loose stools, etc.).
I have not been able to find any reports of fumarate being used as a supplement. However, fumarate is a component of ferrous fumarate (used globally for iron deficiency anemia in children and adults), as well as a number of drugs, including quetiapine and retroviral inhibitors such as tenofovir. In general it seems to be a safe substance (although it probably shouldn't be used by those with fumarase deficiency).
So what's the bottom line here? It could be that the L-carnitine vs. acetyl-l-carnitine question will become moot and the L-carnitine fumarate form could become the carnitine of choice for those with PWS.
For those who are interested in trying L-carnitine fumarate, the Pure Caps page for it is at http://www.purecaps.com/itemdy00.asp?T1=LCF1, with supplementary information at http://www.purecaps.com/PDF/pi/l_Carnitine_Fumarate.pdf. Jarrow also has (http://www.jarrow.com/product.php?prodid=191), as does Doctor's Best (http://www.drbvitamins.com/nutritionalproducts_details.asp?id=16). Make sure the label specifies that the L-carnitine is the fumarate form and not the more commonly available L-carnitine tartrate. All of the L-carnitine fumarate on the market is made by Sigma Tau and is pharmaceutical grade.
Please note that I am in the process of revising the carnitine and Coenzyme Q10 articles to suggest that, especially for older children, carnitine and/or CoQ10 supplementation be started with very low doses and then very slowly increased in order to give the child (and their parents) plenty of time to adapt to more normal levels of mental and physical energy. After all, older children with PWS have lived with a significant mental and physical energy deficit for years and to them that is "normal." Then CoQ10 or carnitine is started, and all of a sudden the world is a brighter, busier place, they're experiencing all kinds of new perceptions and sensations, and their thinking is zipping along at a significantly faster pace. It's probably much like going from a dim room out into bright sunlight, except way more intense because the increase in energy they're experiencing is a full body and mind experience. So it's not surprising that it could be a somewhat disorienting experience that could lead to emotional, mental and physical reactions that others interpret as irritability. I therefore consider it important that the increase in mental and physical energy provided by CoQ10 and/or carnitine be increased very slowly so as to give the child and their parents plenty of time to adapt, physically, mentally and emotionally, to each step up to a higher level of energy as the dose is slowly increased. It will also probably be helpful if the parents talk with the child ahead of time about what kinds of things they might experience when the CoQ10 or carnitine.
I think the need to proceed very slowly is somewhat less of an issue for infants and toddlers, especially those who are badly delayed in such things as babbling and talking, head control, sitting, and walking, as they have not spent nearly as much time entrained by a significant energy deficit and I think it is important to get them developmentally on track as soon as possible. But as always, it is critical that parents use their intimate knowledge of their child and intuition in determining the approach that will be best for their child.
I also need to note that there is the possibility that the irritability reported in some of those with PWS when CoQ10 supplementation is started could be due to the increased energy unmasking an intrinsic behavioral disturbance that was previously "sedated" by a serious impairment in cellular energy availability. At this point I have no way of determining how much of that irritability could be the result of a some level of understandable disorientation due to a sudden increase in mental and physical energy (as described above) or is due to an unmasking effect. If it does turn out that CoQ10, carnitine, or anything else that improves energy metabolism and mitochondrial function in PWS to more normal levels can unmask a previously sedated behavioral disturbance, I think there are ways that could be dealt with, but that is beyond the scope of this post. I will note once again, though, that my hunch is that at least some of the severe behavioral problems associated with PWS are due to (1) chronic intermittent hypoxia and sleep fragmentation caused by under- or untreated breathing disorders, and/or (2) untreated energy metabolism problems that lead to repeated episodes of hypoglycemia, which is well-known to cause severe irritability and anxiety as well as psychotic-like symptoms and out-of-control rages. I therefore consider it essential that any breathing disorder be aggressively treated and every effort made to ensure stable blood sugar levels throughout the day.
Bubbles, bubbles everywhere
Mar 18, 2007 by dankohnSo tired. Must rest.
The reason I’m tired is completely my fault. Well, my fault and the author Jennifer Weiner’s fault. My sister recommended the book Goodnight, Nobody, an excellent murder-mystery with a suburban Connecticut stay-at-home mom as the protagonist. Usually, I read to help me get sleepy at night but this book was not that kind of book. Recently, I had been reading Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca for the umpteenth time. That one is good for inducing sleep, partly because the print is so small in my worn paperback copy, and also because I know how it ends. (Does it end so abruptly? I think I may be missing a couple chapters at the end.)
So this book was a page-turner and I stayed up late reading last night. I finally gave up on waiting for my eyes to get tired and decided to just turn off the light. I should have finished the thing. I stayed awake for an hour trying to figure out who the murderer was and possible motives. My brain wouldn’t turn off. I was tossing and turning and then Thomas came in, as usual. He crawled right under the covers and went to sleep. A few minutes later, I was laying peacefully when I heard my daughter’s sweet little voice pipe up from right next to my head. “Oh, hi Mommy! Oh, hi Thomas! Oh, hi Daddy! Oh, hi Sophie!” She scared the heck out of me. Hayley had evidently figured out the whole toddler-bed thing and that she can indeed climb out, at will, no matter the hour.
“Hayley! What are you doing in here?”
“Mommy under da sheets.”
“You’ve got to go back to bed!”
“Daddy under da sheets.”
“Yes, but Hayley has to sleep in Hayley’s bed.”
“No, Hay-yay seep wi Mommy.”
“No way! Come on, let’s go back to bed.”
“Thomas under da sheets.”
She had me there. Now what? Thomas is allowed to sleep in our bed but Hayley has to go back to her room all by herself? Three-quarters of the family sleeps in my and Jonathan’s bed (not including the animals that sleep in our bed), but Hayley is banished to her room. Ugh.
I took Hayley back into her room anyway and vowed to try and settle things today. She got back into her bed and pulled the covers up. I kissed her and left the room, leaving the door slightly ajar as usual. About forty-five minutes later, I was still tossing and turning. I started to nod off when I noticed that Hayley was now completely in the bed, sitting up next to Jonathan and babbling away. Okay, this time I had to get serious and shut the door to her room. I picked her up and took her back to bed, explaining that she has to stay in her bed all night long and not get up until it’s light outside. I also said I’d be shutting the door. Hayley can’t work our doorknobs yet, so I knew she wouldn’t be able to go strolling around the house at 3 a.m., which was coming up fast.
I heard her trying the knob a few times after that, but she didn’t get out. I eventually fell asleep and for all of the getting up and restless sleeping in the middle of the night, the kids didn’t sleep late this morning, which was a bummer.
The other bummer was that Jonathan was asked to work yesterday and today. I can’t remember him ever working on a Sunday before. He had the option to say no, but in the end we couldn’t pass up the double-time pay. This morning, I took the kids to the store to buy ingredients for Jonathan’s favorite meal (ginger beef stir-fry) and to replenish our bubble supply. Thomas found an old bottle of bubble solution in a cabinet yesterday, but it was really old and didn’t make many bubbles, so I told the kids that we’d go get more bubbles today. I made a list and off we went. I’m a woman on a mission when I’m at the store with both of the kids. First stop, the bakery counter to pick up free cookies for the kids. Then, produce, meat, bam-bam-bam, and finally the bubble aisle where I purchased the Bubble Extravaganza 4000 or something like that. It’s a little machine that the manufacturers claimed would blow “10,000 bubbles in minutes.” The package literature was correct. I didn’t actually count, but this machine created something of a wind-tunnel in Thomas’ room and blew many thousands of bubbles around in no time. It also went through the bottles of solution it came with in no time. Luckily, I had the foresight to purchase six more bottles, which are now half-gone. One bad thing about it is that there’s nothing to keep the solution from sloshing out if the machine is moved, which it was by my children as they fought for possession of the toy. I spent a hefty portion of my day wiping up bubble solution from the floors. The kids really enjoyed the whole thing, though.
Anyway, Thomas is still screaming (it’s worsened since I last wrote) a lot, but now he’s covering his ears when he does it. How comical. This says to me that he doesn’t enjoy the noise coming out of his mouth as much as the vibration in his head. He had just “okay” or “difficult” days at school all this past week.
I wrote last time that Thomas got upset when Jonathan yelled at him last week, and he’s been continuing that trend. I yelled at him today when he dumped bubble solution all over the floor (again) after I had told him not to move the little machine. His lip stuck out and got pouty in that really cute and sad way so I held him a little and we talked about the bubble machine. At one point, he actually got paper towels himself and attempted to clean up the mess. Great self-helping! And all of the soapy solution on his carpet actually made it smell fresher and look cleaner. So all’s well that ends well. I’m sure we’ll have more adventures with bubbles tomorrow.
We’ve got a play-date coming up this week at my mother-in-law’s house with some relatives on Jonathan’s dad’s side. There are three other kids coming, but two of them are only three months old and the other is just over a year. I think it’s more of a mommy play-date. I’m just worried that Thomas and Hayley will want to go to the basement to play and I’ll have to follow them down there to keep an eye on them while everyone else sits upstairs cooing over their infants and eating finger-sandwiches. Ho-hum.
I don’t have a very good attitude about it, do I? We’ll see what happens. Anyway, it’s a reason to leave the house for a few hours. I’m more worried about next week, Spring Break. What are we going to do? How am I going to fill the hours? I guess I’d better head back to the store and get a lot more bubble solution. They’ll have to load it into my truck with a fork-lift
Angelic weekend
Mar 11, 2007 by AnonymousWhat an eventful weekend! It started Friday morning when Hayley and I went to Thomas’ school for the Art Show. The whole way there, Hayley sat in the back seat saying, “Going to an art show! Going to an art show!” She was excited. I was wary. Last year, whenever I showed up at school, Thomas would flip out a little bit. I understood why; I wasn’t supposed to be there. I was not part of his school schedule. Friday, I told him that Hayley and I would be at school today to see the art show, and he seemed excited. When we walked into his classroom, he smiled kind of shyly. Hayley went over to him right away and said, “Oh, hi Thomas! What a good boy!” and she gave him a hug. Thomas’ teachers thought that was really cute. So did I. Unfortunately, Thomas thought that we were going to go home right away; that I was just picking him up. I did get him to stay for about forty-five minutes, however.
I loved the art show. It was really cool; they had the kids “copy” masterpieces like Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” and Piet Mondrian’s color-block pieces. The teachers took pictures of the kids and then turned some of them to negative to look like Andy Warhol’s works and arranged them in groups of four. There was a section for each artist that showed the original painting or composition and then the kids’ pictures were displayed around it. They had snack stations (Thomas and Hayley’s favorites) and art stations with ink stampers, paint brushes and crayons. We had a lot of fun. Thomas and Hayley were really well-behaved – so good, in fact, that a photographer from the local paper took our picture while we were observing some of Thomas’ artwork. The photographer was watching us, waiting for a good photo opportunity, but both Thomas and Hayley stared at her and plastered goofy smiles on their faces. They definitely know the camera-drill. She asked them to pretend she wasn’t there, so I engaged Thomas and asked him to find his name. (All of the kids’ names were on their particular pieces of art.) He said, “It’s right there,” and nodded to his picture. The photographer stood and waited so I asked Thomas to point to his name, which he did. Click, click, click – she got what she needed. I don’t know if our picture made it in, but I’m sure someone will let me know if my children, at their very young ages, have already gotten their fifteen minutes of fame.
Yesterday, we had to take Thomas and Hayley to the doctor with us. Both Jonathan and I had check-ups, and since our internist doesn’t handle pediatrics, his receptionist really enjoyed our visit. So did the doctor, until Thomas and Hayley dismantled the protective paper roll that was hung on the back of the exam table. He said he didn’t mind, but I was surprised he saw us both together with the kids in the room. Next time, he might ask that we come in one at a time so that the kids won’t have to come in. Actually, we did schedule separate appointments, but SOMEONE (not me) forgot his appointment on Friday night so we both squeezed in together Saturday morning. Other than the paper thing, the kids were really, really good. Actually, lately it’s been Hayley that we have a problem with. She’s not loud or destructive, she just doesn’t listen to us.
We went out to dinner last night with my side of the family because my sister’s company is moving her to California and we’re probably not going to be seeing her very often. A whole slew of us were there, and my sister decided that she wanted one last real Chicago meal, so we went out for deep-dish pizza. The meal was a little later than Thomas and Hayley are used to eating, and the pizza took FOR-EVER to be served, but despite all that, they were very good. It got a little hairy at the end, but it was already way past their bedtime and everyone was, as always, very understanding.
We stopped at my sister’s place before going home and the kids had fun on the stairs. She gave them a stuffed shark named Bruce from “Finding Nemo” and a little toy car one of her roommates got in a Happy Meal not long ago. Thomas didn’t want to leave, but Jonathan and I were getting tired.
Today, we decided we had to replace the kid’s beds. Thomas has been sleeping on a toddler bed for the last two years, and it has seen better days, to say the least. Prolonged jumping and general wear and tear has lately rendered it broken-down and possibly unsafe. We also decided it was time to move Hayley to a toddler bed. By the time Thomas was her age, he had been in a toddler bed for over a year. So I first let my fingers do the walking. We had kicked around the idea of buying him a car bed, but once I found out the price (not including the mattress) we decided to get him just a regular twin-size bed and put Cars sheets on it. We presented the idea to Thomas this morning again, as we have been talking to him about it for a few weeks now. His response was, “I don’t want a new bed. Just a new car.” We took the kids to Toys ‘R’ Us (my keyboard won’t do a backwards “r”) first to get Hayley’s bed and bedding, and that was a bit short-sighted. We had discussed a plan of attack prior to setting out. We thought that maybe I could just run in for the bed and sheets but then we decided that we wanted to see what else they had, possibly for Thomas. Well, Thomas can smell a toy-car section like a bloodhound and it wasn’t long before we were wandering through the aisles of cars while Thomas hollered about which way he wanted the cart to go. He had his heart set on a large, orange and radio-controlled Range Rover that cost far more than we were willing to pay for a “just-stop-screaming-and-let’s-get-out-of-here” toy.
We bought it. What suckers we are! Jonathan rationalized it by saying that he would play with it, too. It was amazing how Thomas’ mood immediately improved by a hundred percent as soon as we left the thing in the cart and it appeared that we intended to purchase it. Thomas chattered happily to the cashier who asked rather skeptically if we wanted her to put the car in a bag.
Then, it was our intention to go out to lunch. We found a Chili’s, which the kids are used to, and pulled in the parking lot and parked. Next began the daunting task of convincing Thomas that he could not bring the car into the restaurant. My excuse was that they didn’t allow toy cars that big in Chili’s. To my amazement, Thomas actually accepted that and willingly left his new toy in the car while we went in and had a very pleasant lunch.
Also to my amazement, Jonathan and I don’t dread taking the kids to restaurants anymore! It’s finally happened! They can sit down, amuse themselves with crayons and kid’s menus, and not scream or cry or otherwise be obnoxious until the food comes! That is a big relief. We’ll just have to see if we can conquer Hooters again. It’s one of my and Jonathan’s favorite restaurants and the last time we were there, Thomas was atrocious. We had to leave before we finished eating. It was about one year ago, actually, before Thomas was diagnosed. We’ll see. We have to take baby steps right now.
After lunch, we convinced Thomas to just go and look at the beds to see what he thought. He seemed agreeable, so we went to our nearest bedding emporium and chose a mattress for him. The salesman was a little confused since Jonathan and I kept explaining to Thomas over and over again that this would be his new bed. We would take the little-boy bed out of his room and replace it with this big-boy bed. We would buy new Lightning McQueen sheets and this would be his new bed and he would sleep in it from now on. I finally told the salesman that Thomas is autistic and we have to be very sure that he understands what’s going to happen and agrees to it before we purchase a new bed, take it home, dismantle the old one and set up the new one only to find out that he will not, under any circumstances, sleep in it. In another complete turn-around, Thomas was surprisingly on-board with the whole thing, answering “yeah” to all of our questions. He was excited! We were cautiously optimistic.
We came home, spent a couple hours dismantling and assembling, and Thomas is now in his room, but not yet asleep. We’ll see what happens. I think the time change has something to do with this late night, but he is being quiet and hasn’t complained. I was actually more concerned about Hayley, since she has never had the power to get out of her crib by herself before. I thought for sure that she would make one or two surprise appearances this evening before getting the picture that even though she is able to get out of bed doesn’t mean that she is allowed to when it’s bedtime. Happily, she went right to sleep and hasn’t made a sound.
We have reasonably well-behaved children. I am very pleased and content this evening, save for the fact that Thomas is inexplicably requesting water. Of course! He has a new mattress that isn’t covered in vinyl, so this is the perfect time to wet the bed. I did purchase a waterproof mattress pad, but still! We’ve also just started putting Thomas in underpants overnight instead of a pull-up, so we’re doubly-concerned. I’ll just be happy if he goes to sleep eventually.
(Update: I just checked on Thomas and he is asleep in his new bed, with the sheet and comforter all crumpled up around his upper body. It’s amazing how angelic children look when they’re sleeping…but they did have a pretty angelic weekend.)