Family

Often a family has to go through times where they think they are experiencing something no one else would understand. It could be with babies, teenagers, boys, or girls. With autism, it is easy to just want to close yourself in your house, pull up the welcome mat, and nail the door shut. It is important to remember that you are not alone.

I am attaching a link that gives the point of view of a sibling. I really like how she shows the love, the uniqueness of her sibling.

Please click here.

And I love her quote. This is something I definitly see with my family.

“To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other’s hearts… We live outside the touch of time.” -Clara Ortega

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Gold Fish and Nails

One of the quirks that we went through when Madison was younger was his compulsion to eat particular foods and other items. I remember when we would drop Madison off for Sunday School, and instead of sitting at the table with the other children, he would drop to the floor and pick up crumbs of gold fish crackers. We nick named him Hoover. Each Sunday we knew that we would be up for the next three nights. Even we could make the connection. One of the ladies who worked with us said that eating this was giving Madison a fix like an addict would have from taking drugs.

One of the strangest things was his obsession with metal. He would lick the screws in the doorframe, even when we went to someone else’s house. How did he know the screws were there?

We have found him taking all the pictures down off his wall. He would climb up his furniture to get the nail that the picture was hung on and have the nail in his mouth. For a while we could not put anything on his walls. I swore he was half monkey.

It was really bizarre when we would find where he would uncover the nails in his walls. He would peel the plaster off so that he could lick the nails. We have no idea how he found them. The alternative medicine specialist said that this compulsion was probably because he had a craving for some type mineral.

Our biggest concern is Madison’s love for batteries. Did you know a battery is black inside? He peeled the end off and sucked out the insides. The first time, he came out with black all around his month. We didn’t have a clue what it could be. I thought it may have been soot from a candle. Vickie and I took him to the hospital, us in a panic. Madison went in, they put him in a wheel chair, and he thought it was a blast. He just laughed and told them where to turn. The doctor in ER said they had never had that happen except with pets and he called a veterinarian for advice. Not something that instilled a lot of confidence. Six hours later, Madison was okay. Just added gray hair to his parents.

They did say if it had been a cell battery, they would have had to do surgery