new here - son has possible autistic spectrum disorder

peanutsmum · Emu Egg Joined: Jul 04, 2009 Posts: 1

Hello. I'm new here. Basically my son who's 10 has been referred to the autistic unit by school for assessment. He had been on school action plus (I don't know if that is something that occurs everywhere) but they never raised the subject until I had done my own research and asked straight out if they thought he had an autistic spectrum disorder. They admitted that maybe he has and referred him. He has always been an "odd" kid I suppose though as his mother it's maybe harder for me to see him as such, he's just himself to me. He doesn't fit in with others well (though he does have a couple of friends), cannot cope with normal social banter - thinks everyone is picking on him and takes it very personally and can be very inflexible on certain subjects - food being particularly a problem. Since the age of 18 months he has had a kind of approved list and if it's not on there he's not eating it. He only eats dry foods - no gravy, sauce etc and nothing squishy like cooked fruit or veg - it has to be raw and quite bland tasting. The usual things such as no dessert if you don't eat your main course don't work, he'd rather eat nothing than something he doesn't want to eat. So many people have said things like "if he was mine he'd eat his dinner", " he just needs discipline", "make him go and play with the others" etc and in a wierd way it feels quite a relief that he is probably not naughty or defiant but that there is a reason for him being the way he is. So that's a brief introduction. Looking forward to being on here and maybe making some progress.