Hi everyone,

Christy- Thats great about the diagnosis, you must feel relieved in a way to have a name for the behaviour and know that its not your parenting skilss to blame
I'm relieved strangely enough.... I didn't want a label for a while there, but the behaviour has been so atrocious... it will be good to have some help financially.
I am really hanging out for Ethan's appointment next month, for so long i was in denial and didn't want to label him but strangely now i feel like i need a diagnosis so we can move forward. I've been thinking back over the last 3 years of his life and my gosh we've had a bumpy road but you know what... now that i know that there's something else going on and Ethan isn't just 'naughty' i feel better, i used to feel so down at myself when Ethan would explode at playgroup and wasn't playing nicely like the other kids, i used to think that somehow it was my fault, like myabe i was hard enough on him etc etc

Christy and Maz, thank you so much for sharing your stories here on BB, i've been glued to the computer screen . You both are amazing ladies and reading your journies has really helped my to feel not feel so alone. Its so refreshing to read something you've written and think 'yes, i'm not the only one feeling that way'. Thanks guys and keep the posts coming!

Lulu - How old is your ds? has your little guy been diagnosed at all hun? We're in the process of getting my little man diagnosed. like you i could never quite make up my mind if Ethan was showing asd traits or not, he'd have some really autistic habits but he had more non autistic traits than autistic traits if that makes sense? I used to think 'hmmmmm he does this and this and thats odd but then he makes eye contact and is affectionate so maybe he's fine and just a little delayed'. When he started day care and for the first time other people started pointing out his 'odd' behaviour thats when i realised he was more than just 'quirky'. And the more i started reading, the more i realise that he was displaying heaps of asd traits, right from a few months old. Its strange how once you become aware of something everything becomes so much clearer...i look at Ethan now and i can see the full picture and see just how different he is.

And darn it - this is where dp is such a problem. Communication. Dp also never shuts up, so when he tells ds off, it's an endless lecture. Always full of negatives.
I can see poor ds is overloaded by the endless stream of words, gets worse then the entire episode escalates .
Yep Dh does the same thing. Ethan tends to scream a lot at Dh for no apparent reason and i think that might be because of the way Dh addresses Ethan's behaviour.

I can't find the consequences to his behaviour . I couldn't give him timeout in his room cos he started jumping out the window (7ft drop), now that's locked shut, the door handle has cracked under tanty pressure and now timeout means I have to try and hold the door shut. With a rope (If anyone calls child services I'll hunt you down), and he usually manages to force it open anyway. I feel helpless cos there is NO end consequence left. Well I take his toys etc, no sweets after dinner, missed going somewhere. It's funny cos he seems to accept those punishments on the chin, but no change to behaviour sadly.
Oh Lulu i feel like i could have written that myself. I'm struggling with discipling Ethan, i try time out but he doesn't seem to understand why he's in there and when i try to explain i can't get a word in because he's too busy repeating whatever he wants over and over. I've resorted to just putting him in his room for 5mins to scream it out but when i go to get him out its like he's completely forgotten about the tanty 5 mins before.. he either keeps screaming or just grins at me and walks out..it's frustrating becaus i'm not sure if he understands why he was in there in the first place

we had a mini break through yesterday... Ethan was playing in his room (he was meant to be sleeping ) and i walked in and found him laying on the floor ready for a nappy change (he does this when he does a poo) anyway i said 'have you done a pooie?" and he said 'pooooooooie..........Big one!'
hehehe i just couldn't help but laugh, it was the first time he had shown enough awareness to describe something if that makes sense..usually he will just keep repeating poooie pooie pooie... so it was nice in a gross way