Struggles are Real

Every parent raising a child has struggles, we have them in our home too. Some that we deal with....

Communication...
How do you communicate with a child with Autism?? People ask me if Carson is non-verbal. Can he carry on a conversation with you? NO. But for the most part, he can express his wants and needs. It might be one or two words - but because we know him, we know what he is asking for. But believe me, there are still times that he can say something a dozen times before we can figure out what he wants.
Carson will come up to us and say words from a cartoon, or video he has watched, and he will say it and want us to repeat it. And you have to repeat it right, if you don't, then he will say it again, and again and again. That can get frustrating for him and for us. We try to not get frustrated, but it is hard. We can be watching a tv show and he will come in and sometimes he will get right in your face and make sure you repeat his words.
But if Carson is sick or hurting he can't tell us what hurts or what doesn't feel right. That is one of the worst feelings as a mom, when you can't take the pain away or know what is wrong. Would give anything to be able to fix it for him.

Eating....
Luckily Carson's diet has improved, but over the years it has been a big struggle. He still has a limited window of what he eats and drinks. After the stomach bug struck several years ago, and he threw up his milk, he refuses to drink milk now. But he loves cheese, but he is fussy about what cheese he eats. American Cheese and until only recently it was only white, but now he will eat orange. The cheese sticks that he eats are only one brand, Kraft. And if you buy the 2% he won't eat them. (Unless your a sneaky mom and dad and buy those and throw away the packaging before he sees it an just put the individual sticks in the fridge) He likes macaroni and cheese, but it is just cooked macaroni, and melted sharp (White) cheese. He has to have 2 grilled cheese sandwiches, and they have to be cut into 4 triangles. The boy loves his cheese pizza, and over the past couple years, he has decided that if you pick the toppings off he still has cheese pizza. He is a meat eater, he loves chicken, but he will eat ham, pork chops, and eats roast. But the boy refuses to eat vegetables. The only fruits that he eats are bananas and grapes. Breakfast he will eat toast with butter, but make sure that you get the butter on the toast when it is hot, so the butter is melted otherwise he will throw it in the garbage. He likes toaster strudels, but only strawberry or wild berry. The cookies he likes, are only ones we can get in Wal-Mart. The graham crackers can only be the red box. I think you are getting the picture. Through lots of trial and error we have discovered what he will or won't eat. When we make supper, we generally are making 2 meals. One for Bill, Reed and I and another one for Carson. But no one around here is starving, so I guess we are doing ok.

Personal Care...

Carson was 9 before he pooped on the toilet. Although we were thrilled that we finally reached that milestone, he still doesn't clean himself after. We have to do that for him. We have gone over a year since he wet the bed. Which used to be every night, sometimes twice a night. We have to wash him with the soap, we have to wash his hair. Bill shaves him with an electric razor. We were both nervous on how that would go - but it has gone better then anticipated. He handles with well. He brushes his teeth with no toothpaste, but as the dentist says - that is better then nothing. He does pretty well with that. He has to be told to do it, but if I say put deodorant on, he will.

Sorry for the rambling... I will stop now.