Past meds
Frisium, was good for a little while, but seizure increased..Sodium Valproate( zombied her), Tegretol, Keppra made her nuts not happy and destroyed quality of life. Went funny also with a med called Catapres , used for blood pressure control but can be used to help in " calming the behaviour", also made her nuts.
Now on Trileptal 600 mg twice daily , but am very wary with understanding side effects and what it means in the long term . Also, on Monofeme and Microlut for menstruation management.
On low FODMAP diet which follows dietary guidelines for irritable bowels.
On supervised nutrition prescription by a Dr who specialises in Nutrional medicine, which involve usage of hair analysis and oral chelation therapies.
Treatments involve the uses if the following:
Chlorella, coral calcium, sodium selenite, chromium colloid, taurine, fish oil capsules, Pedionine iodine drops, silica gel, lactobac, magnesium, Zymin, B12 and am now using coconut water to alleviate any possible migraines that she gets at times.
Aloe Vera juice and silver colloid can be used for IBS of diarrhoea.
Will consider coconut oil in the future, but I don't want to introduce anything too soon.
OT us useful for general and behavioural sensory plans, gross and fine motor, how play can be used for interaction. Play is child's work.
Speech is used for initiating augmenting the communication device, teaching stuff like power words, " eat, more, stop, finish etc" trying to teach 4 feelings for her future
1. Happy, 2. Sad, 3. Sick, and 4. Sore.
Importance of Floortime intensive interaction to engage and communicate, don't underestimate songs..use songs with action and a good tune.. Music and dance therapy is really being promoted as positives to engage and relax.
Social inclusion is important life skills and to teach as much independence so she will not be prompt dependant . Don't hide from the world, get them used to doing things in small doses like movies, bowling, eating out in casual places... Try to use other kids as role models they can do more than adults sometimes. Some schools get kids from mainstream to attend the special ed or schools and have an older buddy system set up weekly to promote appropriate rapport with their peers.
I employ a carer that's also a behaviour therapist, behaviour therapy aims to teach skills to be appropriate and learn more efficiently eg redirection is used to draw the child away before the situation escalates.
The main difficulties about Autism is that anxiety appears more often in people with ASD.
Why?
1. Difficulties with social understanding
2. Difficulties in communication
3. Difficulties in generalisation
4. Difficulties with the sensory environment.
I aim to provide structure, improve her communication skills, reduce demands when the going gets tough, provide breaks and try to encourage her to use her own coping skills like she goes retreating with her pile of pillows in a quite area.. She comes back to the rest of us when she's ready.. If shes tired you can forget about trying to engage with her..if I'm tired I would be cranky too.
Make it less confusing, confronting, make everyday interaction enjoyable.
But life is not always a routine, we've all had the unexpected happen, so I do try to do stuff differently to learn to adapt to change.
Autism or not, we all need some routine but we also need to adapt and cope with the unexpected... Same principle..
