Gavin did not have a good day. He had oatmeal for lunch and then threw it away so he had oatmeal for dinner. He drags it out so that he runs out of time and then throws it away. We need to figure a second tier of the punishment when he doesn't eat it. Anyone have any ideas? Remember rewards don't work for him. Someone had made the suggestion to have a reward available at the end of each day if he earns it. If he doesn't earn it the his next chance is the following day. I also have a behavioral contract on my mind but don't know if he would even understand what he was signing. Ideas? Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Well we don't know anymore then what we did before today. He has a speech disorder for sure. He does parallel play. But we are not really any closer to the diagnosis. We have picked up a geneticist, GI specialist, OT and Speech. That's what I remember anyways. She wants a full genetic work up to figure out what's going on. She doesn't know where he falls on the spectrum. She wants to make sure we don't label any wrong. So basically she said he clearly has a speech disorder and he parallel plays. However, he has good eye contact and engages socially which is good. That's all I can remember. Lizze will probably post a more detailed post on her blog. Thanks to all for the thoughts and prayers.…

We are here now and waiting. The waiting is the worst. I feel sick to my stomach... I hate to say this but we are past the point will we are going to receive good news. It's a matter of figuring out how bad things are. He is cute, am I right? Of course he is. He needs a hair cut but that's a battle we haven't picked yet. LT Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Please say a pray today for us. EJ goes to the Children's Hospital today to see the Neuro/Developmental Pediatrician. We are now officially on the road to his diagnosis. We'll know exactly how far behind he is developmentally. Hopefully we learn what we can do to help him through this. I'm sick to my stomach right now. This is going to be an emotionally exhausting day. Please say a prayer. LT Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Some times I just wish I could run away from my life. I'm tired, frustrated, angry, pissed off and done with everything. I would give just about anything to move out of my neighborhood but I can't. We have 2 or 3 neighbors that I could never replace and would truly miss. I haven't had a good nights sleep in so long (years, literally years). Sometimes I don't even feel I can even function anymore. I was just about to lay down last night and both kids woke up at the same time. We had some inconsiderate neighbors that were being entirely to loud and woke up both kids. ER was hysterical I don't think he was feeling well to start with. 0nce he woke up he didn't go back…

Today has been hell. Gavin was throwing meltdown after meltdown. He almost smashed EJ's fingers in the door when he slammed it in his rage. He actually threw something at me today when I shut his window in order to spare the neighbors from his screaming. I'm very quickly getting to a point where I have nothing left to give him. If he had smashed EJ's fingers they would be broken for sure. He slammed the door so hard it rattled the windows. I don't know what I would have done and that honestly scares me. Gavin is getting more and more aggressive. We can't get the doctor to call us back either. He is honestly a horrible example for the other kids. I don't know if he is even…

Houston we have a problem. Oatmeal, which has been the only deterrent is losing effectiveness. He now just stalls until there's no longer a point. The only thing we would have left to do is adjust it so that if he doesn't finish in a predetermined amount of time then it gets pushed of to the next meal. The problem with that is he will choose not to eat. It will then become a power struggle. Before anyone says that rewards work better then consequences be aware the rewards or incentives DO NOT work. Gavin exploits the situation and then we have to stop. For example if we reward him for getting his meltdown under control then he will begin having the meltdowns just to be rewarded for stopping. So…

It's been a rough day but Gavin has been very difficult. Gavin has listened at all today. He just seems to ignore the rules anymore. I swear to God if I hear him say "I'm sorry" one more time my head is going to explode. He's only saying sorry because he got busted. He doesn't learn from his mistakes. We are seeing more of the mental health issues at work here. These problem's go way deeper then Autism alone. I honestly don't know how much more of this I can take. I gave him chance after chance today and he still choose poorly. So he had oatmeal for dinner. He had almost 30 min to eat a really tiny bowl. He didn't cause he was stalling. What he didn't know…